Fresh hell
Thursday, February 3, 2022 Silk gets unreserved by Map eatery ... Brain drain at Syd's Bar 'n' Grill ... The ACT's reserve bin ... Theodora reports
Door undarkened
Co-founders of The Agrarian Kitchen: Séverine Demanet and Rodney Dunn
There has been a dinner drama on the Derwent. According to a report last month in the local edition of The Daily Rupert, an unnamed customer gave management of The Agrarian Kitchen a fume-flecked dressing-down because of the restaurant's snap closure due to Covid related staff shortages.
Séverine Demanet, co-founder of The Agrarian Kitchen, notified customers that the famed eatery in New Norfolk would not be open from Friday January 7, until further notice.
"I am very sorry for the inconvenience caused and hope to see you another time. Stay safe and well," she texted.
Back came a reply from an unhappy traveller called Peter:
It got better, or worse - with mention of a world war ...
Séverine replied:
"I really do not appreciate your message. Do you honestly think that I would close at the last minute like this if it wasn't a serious matter ... I cannot believe that you have written what you have during these extremely uncertain times."
By now Peter was seriously high on his horse tethered conveniently near:
"How dare you speak to me like that ... I think your lack of professionalism is extraordinary ..."
It certainly had the Isle's foodies intrigued and speculating.
The Daily Rupert omitted from its report that the reservation was made from an email address: jopling@vicbar.com.au
Underground exits
Bar's bunker HQ in Phillip Street
Meanwhile, at Syd's Bar 'n' Grill there has been a serious staff bleed.
Here is the current staff list, 22 in all not counting IT contractors. And here is the list as of two months earlier - as at November 2021.
Among those who have disappeared since November are:
• Alastair McConnachie, deputy executive director and director of operations;
• Michelle Nisbet, executive assistant, publications and promotions coordinator;
• Jennifer Pearce, director legal;
• Suanne Colley, director projects and practice development;
• Georgina Stow, certification officer;
• Kim Kemp, director shared services and HR;
• Kim Ellis, document controller and record management.
There were three earlier departures: Heather Sare, manager of the legal assistance referral scheme; Lisa Allen the bar librarian; and Basil Catsaros, the long serving finance manager.
Andreas Heger, the new executive director of the association who replaced Greg Tolhurst, started on June 7, 2021.
Despite Covid and the trouble it has wrought, the bar's accounts are looking plump. Receipts from operating activities last year were $11.5 million, an increase of $2 million from 2020.
The net cash inflow was $2.2 million, compared to $445,596 in the previous year. Total operating revenue was $9.7 million, down slightly from the previous year's $9.9 million.
So the departures are unlikely to be the result of financial constraints. Maybe the departed got sick and tired of working in the bunker underground.
Drowsy syrups
Poppy ... mandragora ... drowsy syrups
It took three years, but the ACT's record breaking Justice Hilary Penfold has delivered.
The hearing in the professional negligence case Gindy v Capital Lawyers commenced in April 2017, and was reserved 20 months later on December 19, 2018.
As the year was shuddering to a close on December 17, 2021 Penfold entered judgment for the defendants, a law shop and two of its principals Paul Crabb and David Chen.
She actually retired from the ACT Supremes in March 2018, but lingered on to complete this and other judgments. The pay rate for an ACT Supreme Court judge is $468,020 a year, and per diems would reflect that level of income.
The Gindy decision is a carefully mulled 3,743 paragraphs. A three year gestation period is relatively speedy for Penfold, who took a glacial six years to come up with reasons and a decision in Supabarn Supermarkets Pty Ltd v Cotrell Pty Ltd.
An ACT appeal bench in ACT v Crowley set aside orders made by Penfold and in the process commented on what for her was a speedster effort of two years:
"There is nothing in the reasons which would indicate why it was necessary for the trial judge to take more than two years to consider her decision, except that the reasons are very long and detailed.
"The reasons published in the Federal Law Reports are 209 pages long comprising 1,093 paragraphs: (2011) 251 FLR 1; [2011] ACTSC 89. The Appendices are a further six pages. The ACT described the reasons as overly elaborate which 'serve to undermine the public confidence in the judiciary and in the judicial system in the same way that insufficient reasons can': Beale v GIO for NSW (1997) 48 NSWLR 430 at 443."
Our running tally of Justinian's Penfold reports has now been updated:
Judgment agony at the ACT Supremes
Post-retirement judicial snafu
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