Galopoulos sues Perth law firm

The previous owner of Blackburne’s City Beach property is taking his former lawyers to court, alleging a breach of duty occurred during deal negotiations over the western suburb asset.

Saruman Holdings, businessman Tom Galopoulos, and his wife Helen, this week lodged a writ in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, naming law firm Solomon Brothers Lawyers as the defendant.

Mr and Mrs Galopoulos are directors of Saruman Holdings.

In the writ, the plaintiffs alleged Solomon Brothers breached its duty of care by concurrently acting for them and Astralace, a company Saruman Holdings was dealing with for joint ownership of the City Beach shopping centre.

The pair claimed, in the writ, that the St Georges Terrace-based law firm should have obtained Saruman’s informed written consent before acting for the company.

According to the writ, Solomon Brothers acted for Astralace in mid-2021 to prepare a deed between the company and the plaintiffs.

In the deed, Astralace would negotiate with Pindan Capital Ocean Village to settle the proceedings the collapsed builder had with Saruman Holdings over Ocean Village shopping centre in City Beach.

The settlement would result in a 50-50 ownership of the City Beach shopping centre between Astralace and Saruman, the writ said.

The writ said Saruman engaged Solomon Brothers to take over the conduct of the legal proceedings with Pindan on Saruman’s behalf, after the deed with Astralace was signed.

According to the writ, Saruman entered into a deed with West Coast 19 Pty Ltd, a Blackburne-related entity, in February 2022.

In the writ, the plaintiffs claimed Solomon Brothers breached its duty of care when it negotiated the terms of the deeds with West Coast 19.

The plaintiffs also claimed in the writ that Solomon Brothers breached its duty of care by failing to advise on the potential conflict of interest in concurrently acting for Astralace and its director Nicholas Agapitos.

Blackburne bought the company that owned the 3 Kilpa Court complex, Ocean Village Shopping Centre Pty Ltd, which was earlier known as Pindan Capital Ocean Village.

Business News previously reported the former builder’s funds management arm, Pindan Capital, held a minority stake in the entity, which Blackburne acquired from EY following Pindan’s collapse.

Pindan Capital Ocean Village bought the City Beach shopping centre from Mr Galopoulos for $12.5 million in December 2016.

The Town of Cambridge approved to sell the Ocean Village Shopping Centre car park to Blackburne for $8.9 million, at a council meeting in July.

A spokesperson for Solomon Brothers said the firm was unable to comment at this time.