BHP seeks urgent suppression orders in trial against coal miner and MWM publisher

BHP and its lawyers MinterEllison last night sought an urgent court order to halt their lawsuit against coal miner Simon Turner. Michael West Media, Michael West reports.

In an extraordinary move to silence media reports of disabled coal miner Simon Turner’s alleged wage theft, Australia’s largest company, BHP, has filed an urgent application in the Federal Court in relation to his case, which is scheduled to be heard before Judge Needham at 10am this morning.

This is a lawsuit filed by BHP itself.

In February, former coal miner Simon Turner launched a lawsuit against BHP and four organizations involved for underpayment of wages. Turner injured his back in the Mt Arthur coal mine in 2015 and has been fighting to get compensation ever since. In this publication, the case, which was also the subject of closure orders upon BHP’s request, was included.

BHP subsequently sued Turner and Westpub (its publisher). Michael West Media) ) For breach of confidentiality regarding the broadcast of a meeting in 2024. The defendants counterclaimed that Trent Forno, partner and BHP firm’s attorney, was present at the 2024 meeting and therefore MinterEllison, a material witness in the BHP case and also BHP’s attorney, had a conflict of interest.

Mr. Forno’s name disappeared from email correspondence between the parties this week. BHP had previously requested an emergency hearing but this was denied by Judge Needham.

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Simon Turner appealed the decision in the February case, but an appeal date has not yet been set by the Court. Instead BHP launched privacy breach litigation, to be heard today. Although it was planned as a case management hearing, BHP moved to have the application for closure orders heard.

BHP’s MinterEllison sent the Court Book to the parties at 8.27pm after sending notice of the closure application at 7.48pm last night.

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On the evening before the BHP trial in February, MinterEllison had sent the Court Book to Simon Turner, but Turner was unable to open the court book, leaving him unprepared for the next day’s hearing. At the time of publishing this story it was not known whether Mr Turner was already in bed or whether he had access to the BHP/MinterEllison court docket this time.

He may already be lying in bed on the ground floor of his mother’s garage, knowing he has to catch the train from Newcastle early today to face BHP in the privacy case.

Both Turner and West applied to represent themselves at the hearings.

Alongside the suppression application, Westpub, the second participant in today’s hearing, obtained from MinterEllison an affidavit from another partner at the firm, Michael Thomas Fletcher.

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Fletcher is awaiting an order from the Court to take down the stories and videos published by Westpub; Stories about the 2024 teleconference attended by Tom Hunter-Leahy and Lachlan Apps (lawyers acting for Turner at the time), Sophie Croft and John Hickey (BHP), Trent Forno (Minter Ellison for BHP), Turner himself, and Senator Malcolm Roberts’ General Counsel Hugh Carter.

Coal wage theft. BHP’s lawyer MinterEllison faces conflict of interest claim

Following Turner and West’s claim in the Federal Court earlier this month that MinterEllison had a conflict of interest in suing them because BHP’s lawyer Trent Forno was present at the meeting, Mr Forno no longer appears to be involved in that claim.

Another of MinterEllison’s partners, Michael Thomas Fletcher, now appears to be acting. It is not known whether the partnership firm is aware of the partnership principle. “Attributed disqualification” (or imputed conflict) in which a partner’s conflict of interest in a firm generally extends to the entire firm.

Since partners are considered to act as a single unit in the eyes of the law, a lawyer’s knowledge and loyalty are automatically attributed to all other partners.

But MinterEllison is probably aware of the principle of open justice; i.e. court proceedings It must be conducted in public and proceedings must be subject to professional and public scrutiny. This globally accepted principle, rooted in common law, ensures the rule of law by ensuring that justice is not only done but also clearly seen to be done.

The author of this story is the director of Westpub, the publisher of Michael West Media, and the Second Defendant in today’s hearing.

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