A Queensland doctor has launched legal action against Henderson boatbuilders LeisureCat Australia and its directors, seeking $1 million over a luxury vessel that he argues was both defective and never completed.
Kelly Macgroarty is suing Catamaran Investments Pty Ltd, trading as LeisureCat Australia, marketing and sales director Kevin Horsley and company directors Lexan Neville Piper and Kimberly William Hyman in the Federal Court in Brisbane.
He is seeking orders that LeisureCat pay him just over $1 million, consisting of more than $650,000 he paid to the company for the 12.5-metre 350 Sportscruiser Flybridge pleasure vessel, about $260,000 he spent on two engines, almost $44,000 to compensate him for loss of use of the engines, and about $55,000 in other incurred costs.
Alternatively, he has asked the court to order Mr Horsley, Mr Piper and Mr Hyman to pay him, claiming they breached the federal Competition and Consumer Act.
In his statement of claim, released to Business News by the Federal Court, Dr Macgroarty alleges he contracted to purchase the vessel in March 2019 and expected to take delivery of it in about March 2020. After a variation, the quote was for about $688,000.
Dr Macgroarty claimed to have made progress payments after LeisureCat represented that certain manufacturing milestones had been met on the project. He purchased the engines in January 2020 and claims that purchase was based on verbal advice from Mr Horsley that the vessel would soon be ready to have the engines fitted.
However, LeisureCat pushed out the delivery date, first to September 2020 and then to March 2021, citing issues relating to the global COVID pandemic.
Dr Macgroarty says in his statement of claim that he then demanded LeisureCat deliver the vessel to Brisbane from Malaysia, where it was being built, and complete the project in Australia.
Upon inspecting the vessel in July 2021, Dr Macgroarty alleges it was "materially incomplete, in a poor condition, with multiple defects requiring repair, rectification and completion for the vessel to meet the contract requirements".
He claims further work was not planned or undertaken, despite his requests, and he then engaged lawyers to cancel the contract.
In the defence filed with the court by LeisureCat, the company and its directors claim COVID and the subsequent restrictions imposed by the Malaysian, Australian and Western Australian governments, coupled with labour and supply shortages, caused the delays in delivery.
Further, Dr Macgroarty had made repeated directions for additions and changes to the scope of works and his demand that the vessel be transferred from LeisureCat's facitlities in Malaysia to third-party facilities in Brisbane had made it difficult for LeisureCat to source the necessary equipment, material, expertise and labour to complete the construction.
The respondents also claimed they were entitled to stop working on the vessel in July 2021 because the final invoice, issued on July 15, had not been paid by the due date of July 21.
They also deny liability for the purchase of the engines, the loss of their use, or the incurring of professional inspection fees.
The case is due back in court in April.
