Gilchrist goes into battle
by Ben Butler (Business reporter Fairfax)
Cricket legend Adam Gilchrist is famous for his sense of fair play on the field. So CBD hopes he'll exhibit the same qualities in the courtroom, where he is embroiled in a legal stoush over a company where he's a director.
Gilchrist and the other directors of sandalwood plantation outfit TFS Corporation have launched legal action against Report Card, the company behind popular sharemarket discussion website hotcopper.com.au.
The WA Supreme Court lawsuit is something called ''pre-action discovery'', where you sue somebody to get evidence as to who it is you really want to sue.
Named as plaintiffs are Gilchrist, TFS CEO Frank Wilson, CFO Quentin Megson and non-executive directors Stephen Atkinson, Ronald Eacott and Julius Matthys. However, documents obtained by CBD show that TFS Corporation has backed the action financially, writing a $1000 cheque to Report Card towards its costs of responding to the lawsuit.
Hotcopper users have been cranky about TFS for a while, and it may be that the company wants to discover the names of the agitators.
In August, user ''bobuck'' reported receiving a phone call from Wilson. ''He threatened to sue me,'' the former TFS shareholder wrote in a Hotcopper post. He went on to repost a December 2012 yarn by BusinessDay's own Michael West, detailing the efforts of rebel shareholders to spill the board.
By the end of the month, bobuck had posted an apology for ''allegations which were defamatory, without foundation and false'' against Wilson, Atkinson, Eacott, Gilchrist, Matthys and Megson.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/gilchrist-goes-into-battle-20131015-2vksa.html#ixzz2hrfDr5KQ
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