LSB September 2021 LR

EVENTS
the majority shareholder be required
to purchase the shares of the minority
shareholder. In extreme cases, the court
could order the winding up of the
company or the appointing of a receiver
and manager.
In relation to real estate, Enzo
reviewed the options of the minority
to bring an application to the court for
partition and sale of the land concerned.
At the conclusion of Enzo’s paper,
participants were addressed by the
Society’s President Elect, Justin Stewart-
Rattray on the current and foreshadowed
activities of the Law Society on behalf of
the South Australian legal profession.
Afterwards, lunch was served following
which conference participants had the
afternoon free to join their spouses and
children and explore all that Kangaroo
Island has to offer.
Many travelled to the fire ground
to the west of the Island to remark at
what must have been some superhuman
efforts of the fire fighters to combat the
fires and to observe that, 12 months on,
although the areas burned were still readily
discernible, the native vegetation at least is
well on the way to a full recovery.
Others took advantage of the fine but
breezy weather to have a swim at some of
the Island’s lovely beaches, such as Stokes,
Pennington, Emu and Vivonne Bays.
Inevitably, the brewery and distillery
did a roaring trade, with many conference
participants taking the opportunity to
sample the offerings available at both
places.
On Saturday night the conference
dinner was held; again, at the Ozone Hotel,
where conference participants had a further
opportunity to socialise and relax together.
It has often been remarked that
the first session at 9.15am on a Sunday
morning, following the dinner the night
before, is a particularly difficult gig,
both for the presenter and the audience.
Unfazed by that difficulty, Maria
Demosthenous presented her paper
entitled “Loss of Life – Legal Entitlements
and Consequences, Rural Accidents and
Other”. John Kyrimis chaired the session.
Maria’s paper focussed on fatal motor
vehicle accidents; many of which occur in
country and regional areas, and the legal
consequences which flow from those
accidents, with particular emphasis on
nervous shock and loss of dependency
claims.
Maria expanded on the subject to
note that nervous shock (defined as a
recognised psychiatric illness) is only
available where a person suffers a physical
injury in the accident, was present at
the scene at the time that the accident
occurred, or is a parent, partner or child of
the person killed, injured or endangered in
some way in the accident.
Maria indicated that a loss of
dependency claim was available only to
a spouse, parent sibling or child of the
deceased, with the action to be brought
usually by the estate of the deceased as a
single action for all claimants.
The next paper was presented by
Graham Edmonds-Wilson QC on the
topic “The Conflicted Legal Personal
Representative – Acting in Different
Capacities – What you Can and Cannot
Do”. Paul Boylan of Boylan Lawyers
chaired the session.
In his paper, Graham reviewed some
of the problems that can arise where there
are conflicts of interest and duty in the
case of legal personal representatives of
deceased persons.
Graham noted that conflicts or
potential conflicts generally arise as a
result of the legal personal representatives’
personal interests as opposed to their
duties to beneficiaries or from their dual
role as both legal personal representative
and beneficiary.
Graham identified some of the
situations that can arise and discussed a
number of options for dealing with them,
by reference to case law.
The final paper of the conference was
presented by David Hopkins of Brown
and Associates on the topic “Commercial
Leases – An Update”. The session was
chaired by Peter Ryan of Rudall and Rudall.
David reviewed the changes to
landlord and tenant law that had been
put in place in response to the pandemic
as well as the changes to the Retail and
Commercial Leases Act, which amendments
came into force on 1 July last year.
The Conference then closed with
concluding remarks from Phil Westover.
The Conference was considered a
success overall. It was apparent to all that
the Country Practitioners’ Committee
had worked hard to ensure the variety
of papers and their relevance to country
practitioners. Our thanks go to all who
presented papers.
The Committee also wishes to
acknowledge the efforts of Rebekah Cole
and other staff members of the Law
Society for undertaking the considerable
logistical exercise to ensure the success of
the Conference. Our sincere thanks.
We also thank the conference
sponsors, Leap, Legalsuper and BankSA
for their continued support. B
September 2021 THE BULLETIN 35