NSW to Appeal Desane Compulsory Acquisition Decision

The New South Wales Roads and Maritime Services will appeal a recent Supreme Court decision in the landmark Desane compulsory acquisition case, as the “land grab” battle continues.

The Roads and Maritime Services announced that they will appeal the Supreme Court decision made in property developer Desane’s favour earlier this month.

ASX-listed property developer Desane has been fighting to retain its prime 68-72 Lilyfield Road Rozelle site since 2016.

Related reading: Property Stoush Over ‘$100m’ Proposed WestConnex Site Continues

The government originally offered Desane $21.5 million for their flagship property, but the property group has always maintained it was worth $100 million-plus, based on the site’s development potential.

The NSW Crown Solicitor’s Office informed Desane’s lawyers, Levitt Robinson Solicitors last week that they intend to challenge the Supreme Court’s findings.

The RMS appeal will challenge Justice Hammerschlag's findings on the validity of the proposed acquisition notice, or PAN.

Justice Hammerschlag found that the PAN had no effect for failure to state the public purpose, and that the intentions of the Rail and Maritime Services “may never be realised” and were “ill-defined”.

His Honour did not provide a determination on whether the Rail and Maritime Service had acted with improper purpose – as was contended by Desane.

"On behalf of our company and its mum-and-dad shareholders, I am deeply disappointed that following the comprehensive judgment, RMS have not heeded the advice of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, when she publicly stated that the RMS needed to respect what the court had decided and she expected them to move forward in a positive way," Desane chairman John Sheehan said.

The NSW Crown Solicitor’s Office advised they would seek to expedite the appeal because “his Honour’s judgment causes significant uncertainty for a large number of pending and future acquisitions of land”.

Desane and RMS were scheduled to appear before Justice Hammerschlag in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.