However, within months of that press release, the parties were in a legal battle over the terms of Gorman’s share sale.

The matter landed in the Supreme Court of Victoria late last year, when Factory X appealed an arbitration decision relating to Gorman’s attempts to sell her shares. The arbitration between Gorman and Factory X had been decided by renowned lawyer Justin Gleeson, SC.

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In that arbitration, Gleeson found that as part of her contract Gorman could only sell her shares in six-month intervals, rather than in one transaction as requested by Gorman. However, Gleeson rebuffed Factory X’s attempts to alter the valuation of the shares over time by agreeing with Gorman that the shares be valued at the time of her announced sale.

Factory X appealed the decision on the basis that Gleeson’s decision was “obviously wrong”. Obviously wrong is a concept where a judge must be able to find that the arbitrator’s decision was wrong not just on a minor point of law, but wrong to the point of being severely egregious or a major intellectual aberration.

The Supreme Court of Victoria threw out Factory X’s appeal this month, finding Gleeson’s ruling stood.

Justice Clyde Croft explained in his decision: “It is not, in my view, appropriate to consider in any detail to the construction issues the applicant now seeks to agitate.”

“Were the court to do so, this proceeding would become, in effect, a rehearing of the substance of the arbitral proceedings, a process which is clearly not available.”

The costs for the pricey legal bingle will be determined at a later date.

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