Business Owners Asked to Join COVID-19 Lockdown, Quarantine Class Action

A family traveling on SQ237 walk through Melbourne Airport International arrivals hall on November 01, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Fully vaccinated international travellers arriving in Victoria from Monday 1 November were no longer required to enter mandatory hotel quarantine, following the easing of state and federal COVID-19 border rules. Australian citizens were also able to leave the country without requiring a travel exemption. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

Businesses in Victoria that were impacted by class action from the second wave of COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia are being asked to register for class action.

The class action is continuing despite Victorian prosecutors dropping charges against the state government for quarantine due to evidence being found inadmissible.

Law firm Quinn Emanuel is inviting businesses to register with the class action by July 8, where it will push to recover losses incurred between July 2020 to October 2020.

“Registration is open to Victorian retail businesses that were unable to provide (or were limited in their ability to supply) goods or services from their place of business to the public because of the second-wave lockdowns,” the law firm states.

“With the consent of both parties, the Supreme Court of Victoria has ordered mediation to occur in November this year.”

A Supreme Court of Victoria court notice (pdf) issued to group members of the Hotel Quarantine (Business Losses) class action confirms that the deadline is July 8.

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“The plaintiff alleges that the lockdowns were a result of negligence in the hotel quarantine program,” the notice said.

“There is to be a Court-ordered mediation in the class action in November 2024. A mediation allows the parties to determine if they can reach agreement about the outcome of the action (subject to Court approval).”

The class action, which commenced on Aug. 21, 2021, is against the State of Victoria, the former minister for health, and several other departmental officials.

Quinn Emanuel commenced a class action on behalf of 5 Boroughs NY Pty Ltd on Aug. 21, 2020, according to court documents.

“The Plaintiff contends that the First Defendant, the State of Victoria, is vicariously liable. The Defendants deny the claims made against them and are defending the class action,” the Supreme Court notice states.

‘We Ceased Being a Democracy’: Abbott

Recently, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott expressed concerns Australia “ceased being a democracy” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said without a royal commission, he fears Australians could be locked up for several years again. Mr. Abbott told Sky News Australia the policy to deal with COVID-19 ended up being worse than the disease itself.

“And when you go back and look at this honestly and dispassionately, you'd have to say that the first mistake that governments made was throwing out the carefully prepared pandemic plans that we all had in panic in early March 2020 because of the dire photos coming out of overwhelmed Italian hospitals,” Mr. Abbott said.

COVID-19 Quarantine Charges Dropped

Meanwhile, COVID-19 hotel quarantine charges against the Victorian Department of Health were recently canned amid a loophole.

Victoria’s second COVID-19 wave led to 800 deaths, 99 percent of which were traced back to workers at quarantine hotels, according to the state’s own hotel quarantine inquiry.

However, prosecutors dropped charges after the evidence of 10 key health department witnesses was ruled inadmissible in the Victorian County Court.

While health department employees provided evidence to inquiry, it was found to be inadmissible again in other proceedings.

In September 2021, WorkSafe Victoria charged the health department with 58 alleged “breaches” of the Occupational Health and Safety Act related to hotel quarantine.

This followed a 15 month investigation involving the review of tens of thousands of documents, including evidence submitted to the hotel quarantine inquiry.

However, in March 2023  a magistrate determined there was enough evidence to “support a conviction” and the Department of Health was committed to stand trial, according to WorkSafe.

Following this committal, the health department sought a ruling on the admissibility of evidence based on a reading of the Inquiries Act 1980.

The county court ruled in favour of the Department of Health on April 9 to exclude relevant evidence under Section 80 of the Inquiries Act, which articulates that evidence produced in a board of inquiry cannot be used in other proceedings.

The Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) did not appeal this court ruling.

‘Nobody Will Be Held Accountable’: Pesutto

Following the decision, Victorian Liberal Opposition leader John Pesutto expressed alarm nobody will be held accountable for the loss of 800 lives from hotel quarantine.

Mr. Pesutto said he “can’t quite connect the dots” and called for any other reasons for the decision to be made public.

“Like a lot of Victorians, we viewed with dismay and deep concern the loss of over 800 lives around hotel quarantine,” Mr. Pesutto said.

“Victorians will never forget the loss of life on such a huge scale at the time and they would certainly hope that there’s a proper basis for this decision.”

He said a lot of Victorians will be wondering why no-one is going to be held accountable for “one of the worst disasters” in Victoria’s recent history.

“Someone’s got to be accountable to someone, somewhere. And it just seems under this government, whatever it is, noone is held accountable for anything,” he said.

Also in response to the news of the charges being dropped, WorkSafe Victoria expressed it was deeply disappointed by the prosecutors decision to discontinue criminal proceedings.