Ari Katsoulas appeared for the successful Plaintiffs in Quantum Investments (Aust) Pty Ltd & Ors v Zhi Wei Lin [2022] NSWSC 1387. In those proceedings, 6 Plaintiffs advanced amounts totalling $2,490,000 to the First Plaintiff to be loaned towards a large residential development in Turramurra. The Defendant was the sole director and shareholder of the First Plaintiff. The entire amount advanced to the First Plaintiff was lost. Each of the Plaintiffs alleged that they were induced to advance the funds in reliance on oral representations made to them by the Defendant (to the effect of assurances and liability guarantees) and pleaded a case pursuant to section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law.
Five of the six Plaintiffs were successful.
At [116] his honour Justice Black found (with respect of 5 plaintiffs):
“I am satisfied that these representations were misleading and deceptive, where the risks attached to the loans were such that there was plainly no basis for Mr Lin to “guarantee” a return for the Lenders, in the sense of an assurance that they would be repaid. Mr Zheng, Ms Luo, Mr Wang and Ms Qian and MSD succeed in this claim, subject to causation and quantification which I address below.”
At [94] – [101], three of the Plaintiffs were additionally successful on the basis that the Defendant represented that he would personally guarantee the First Plaintiff’s obligations to those plaintiffs, but no guarantee was subsequently given by him.
The full reasons: https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/183cf6fea7ee475b6f25375f