Parramatta Eels officials win Supreme Court injunction against NRL deregistration
Date
May 3, 2016 - 5:27PM
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Chris Barrett and Rachel Olding
Five Parramatta club officials have won a last-minute reprieve in the Supreme Court against their deregistration from the NRL.
Late on Tuesday, Justice Rowan Darke enacted interim orders preventing the NRL from restricting the functions of the directors and club officials of the Parramatta National Rugby League Club Ltd.
The decision came after the NRL announced it was deregistering Parramatta Club chairman Steve Sharp and officials Tom Issa, Peter Serrao, John Boulous and Daniel Anderson.
The five men launched an urgent bid to stave off deregistration from the NRL late on Tuesday, accusing the NRL of denying them procedural fairness and of potentially breaching company law.
The matter was being heard just hours after hours after the Eels were stripped of 12 competition points, fined $1 million and told that five officials would be immediately deregistered.
The barrister for the five men, Arthur Moses, SC, told Justice Darke on Tuesday afternoon that the NRL had no power to limit or "fetter" the directors of another company. To do so would be in breach of the Corporations Act, he said.
Parramatta Rugby League Club Ltd is a separate company to the NRL and the pair are in a contract together, the court heard.
"One corporation cannot impose upon the directors of another corporation," he said. "To state that is to state the obvious with all due respect."
Mr Moses also accused the NRL of denying the five club officials procedural fairness. He said the NRL's Integrity Unit had been investigating salary cap breaches at Parramatta since June 2015 and the breaches allegedly go back to June 2013.
However, he said the first his clients knew about the allegations against them and the proposed suspension was in a letter handed to them on Monday afternoon. They were then asked to attend at 7.30am on Tuesday, just before the claims of impropriety were made public.
"[There was] no prior notice given that they would be suspended today before today," Mr Moses said.
In the letter, the five men were told of the allegations against them and told they have five days to respond. The letter also outlined the intention to deregister them and said they were suspended in the meantime.
The letter said the only activities they can undertake as company officials in the meantime is to prepare their response and to assist the club to prepare its response.
Mr Moses told the court the NRL doesn't have the power to make such restrictions on other company officials. He said the NRL's definition of "suspension" was also unclear.
The NRL's barrister, Lachlan Gyles, responded by saying that the notice of suspension and the five-day period for responding is "procedural fairness 101".
Justice Darke has implemented orders preventing the NRL from "acting upon, implementing or carrying into effect" the proposed suspension of registration handed to the five officials in a letter on Monday afternoon.
The matter will return to the Supreme Court on Friday and, if the parties can't settle out of court, will require a one-day hearing to argue the legality of the deregistration.
NRL boss Todd Greenberg on Tuesday morning accused Parramatta's salary-cap masterminds of being in denial and demanded the club get its house in order.
As well as facing the loss of all 12 competition points so far accrued this year and a $1 million fine, the Eels' board has been decimated by the league's plan to de-register five senior officials.
Greenberg suggests the breach notices are the culmination of almost a decade of dysfunctional management, including breaching the salary cap in five of the last six years.
