Reclusive gold entrepreneur Anton Billis could soon be on the frontline of a bills fight with the lawyers that led a successful legal campaign against his former close associate Michael Giovinazzo.
Reclusive gold entrepreneur Anton Billis could soon be on the frontline of a bills fight with the lawyers that led a successful legal campaign against his former close associate Michael Giovinazzo.
After seven months of leaving it to his Marshall Islands-registered, Singapore-based investment company to challenge the bills from national firm HWL Ebsworth, Mr Billis is set to become a party to the WA Supreme Court action.
It was revealed in the WA Supreme Court that Mr Billis's investment company Resource Capital was unlikely to be eligible to use Australia's streamlined bill appeal processes because it was a foreign entity.
The WA Supreme Court bills challenge launched in August last year with Resource Capital as the first plaintiff is under those processes. The second plaintiff is Resource Capital's Australian subsidiary Golden Plains Resources.
Resource Capital's barrister's lawyer Kellie Wood flagged Mr Billis seeking to join the action last week, telling a court directions that he was identified in HWL invoices from HWL as being "responsible as the third party payer".
In September 2024, Resource Capital and Golden Plains won a Victorian Supreme Court battle with Mr Giovinazzo over control and ownership of the subsidiary.
The Billis-controlled companies thwarted his former best mate's claims that he was a validly-appointed a director of Golden Plains and held shares in the company.
Resource Capital and Mr Billis also defeated counter claims by Mr Giovinazzo over a variety of share and loan agreements linked to dealings involving Golden Plains.
The Victorian Supreme Court judgment catalogued a souring in the business relationship between Mr Giovinazzo and Mr Billis, whose friendship goes back to the 1990s.
The size and the roots of the legal bills challenged in the WA Supreme Court appeal are not known. Papers in the case are not publicly available.
There has been confidential WA Supreme Court mediation between the Billis-linked companies and HWL Ebsworth that was unsuccessful, resulting in the blue being back in the court last week.
HWL lawyer Alister Norwood told the court last week that his team had challenged whether Resource Capital could bring the action as a foreign entity and had written on February 10 asking what steps it planned to take to deal with the issue
Seeking legal costs, Mr Norwood said HWL also questioned on February 10 whether Resource Capital could amend its application without leave from the court.
Ms Woods agreed Ms Billis would need the court's permission to become a party to the proceedings.
Registrar Andrea Jennings said she would need to clarify whether they issue should be before her or a judge.
She did not set a date for the legal argument about Mr Billis entering the action.
