Caratti wins some, loses some in court

John Caratti-controlled Harvard Nominees has been ordered to pay some of the legal costs of major grain farmer Giovanni ‘John’ Nicoletti after a legal battle over Esperance farmland.

The ruling against Mr Caratti's company come after its earlier victory with $2 million in damages awarded in a case which focused on the deceptive conduct of Esperance farmer Simon Tiller and his company Dimension Agriculture.

The case focused on a deal where Harvard Nominees had subleased its Warriup and Howick farms to Mr Tiller and Dimension Agriculture, sometime before January 2019.

Mr Tiller was found to have engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by hiding the fact that Mr Nicoletti became a director and owner of Dimension Agriculture, in a ruling made by Federal Court Judge Darren Jackson in February.

Judge Jackson said this was significant because Mr Caratti did not want to enter into a lease arrangement with Mr Nicoletti, believing he was linked with his brother Allen Caratti, a person he “bore a great deal of animosity” towards.

The Federal Court decided that Mr Tiller’s conduct was misleading and deceptive but dismissed Harvard Nominees’ claims against Mr Nicoletti and Damian Bryce, who is a director of Dimension Agriculture.

In a judgment over costs today, Judge Jackson ruled that while Mr Tiller and Dimension Agriculture were to pay Harvard Nominees’ legal costs, Mr Caratti’s company has been ordered to pay a portion of the other respondents’ fees.

Harvard Nominees has been ordered to pay 10 per cent of Mr Nicoletti’s legal costs and 25 per cent of Mr Bryce’s legal costs.

In February, Judge Jackson decided that Harvard Nominees’ leases with Mr Tiller and Dimension be cancelled.

Mr Tiller and Dimension were also ordered to pay $2 million in damages, with interest of about $190,000.

However, Dimension was placed in voluntary liquidation in March.

In his decision today, Judge Jackson said the difficulty in recovering the $2 million debt was because of Dimension’s insufficient net assets, not the liquidation.

“It establishes nothing more than that in this proceeding, Dimension became liable for a judgment debt of over $2 million which it could not pay, so Mr Nicoletti placed it into liquidation,” he said.

“Any difficulty in recovery just follows from the fundamental fact that Dimension is a limited liability company, and it happens that Harvard succeeded against it, but failed against the natural person standing behind it, Mr Nicoletti. 

“Also, there is no evidence that Mr Nicoletti has done anything to reduce Dimension's assets or increase Dimension's liabilities.”