Former Byron Bay pub owner learns you don’t take on your mother in court
Max Twigg, the former owner of Byron Bay’s Beach Hotel, has lost a Supreme court battle against his mother that started over a dispute over the sale of the family’s waste disposal and landfill business in 2007.
Mr Twigg, wealthy businessman and race car driver, has been involved in the dispute that questions how the $155.8 million in proceeds were spent.
The feud reached boiling point in 2017 when Mr Twigg sold the hotel for $70 million.
All Twigg family assets were held in a series of trusts of which Mr Twigg, his mother Diane and his two sisters Elizabeth and Frances were all beneficiaries.
In 1996, at the age of 25, Mr Twigg took over the family business after his father had passed away. Twigg’s mother, Dianne, was shareholder and director of the family trusts' corporate trustees. She later appointed her son to be second director.
The court heard that almost $114 million of the proceeds from the sale were paid into the account of one of the corporate trustees.
Michael Ball, Supreme Court Justice said they weren’t sure what happened to all of the sale proceeds, however Mr Twigg received a substantial portion of it. $5 million was given to Mr Twigg’s mother as well as both sisters as a gift which they lost during the global financial crisis on investments.
Justice Ball said Mr Twigg saw the success of the business as a direct result of his efforts "and that as a consequence he was entitled to the lion's share".
Mr Twigg made a series of investments with the proceeds. This included paying a portion of the $47.2 million purchase price for the Beach Hotel at Byron Bay in 2007 which he sold for $70 million 10 years later.
Mr Twigg’s mother, along with three corporate trustees launched court action, alleging he breached his fiduciary duties.
The Justice agreed with the complainants saying that even though Mr Twigg was a director, he had no right to act as he did and that the power to deal with trust assets remains with the corporate trustees.
But he also stated that Dianne was aware her son had an "extravagant lifestyle, which included racing expensive sports cars", and knew by about 2009 that he had dealt with the sale proceeds "without consulting her and largely for his own benefit".
The Justice concluded that a series of properties and other assets were "held on trust" for Diane Twigg and the corporate trustees. These include a property in Miami, Queensland, purchased by Mr Twigg for $820,000 in 2017, and a $1.75 million Palm Beach property, purchased for $9 million in cash and a $650,000 Porsche.
Irit Jackson, 2nd August 2020
