SA: Man has lost dinosaur payout cut by $21 million

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2000
SA: Man has lost dinosaur payout cut by $21 million

By Sam Lienert

ADELAIDE, Dec 20 AAP - Model dinosaur maker Allan Limb today had $21 million cut from
a payout awarded to him in South Australia for the loss of his 12-metre high Tyrannosaurus
Rex replica.

The Tasmanian was awarded $31.25 million by Justice Robin Millhouse in the South Australian
Supreme Court in November last year, after his mechanical T-Rex was destroyed in a fire
at the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds in 1985.

On appeal, the Full Court of the South Australian Supreme Court today reduced the amount
to $10.25 million.

The Full Court said Justice Millhouse had significantly overestimated the amount the
dinosaur would have earned Mr Limb in movie rights and merchandising in the United States.

It said Justice Millhouse had estimated there was a reasonable chance the model would
have been worth about $530 million in film, video, television and merchandising rights,
of which Mr Limb's cut would have been $92 million.

He then awarded Mr Limb a proportion of that amount based on the likelihood of movies
starring the dinosaur being made.

The Full Court said the $530 million figure seemed to be based on little other than
the fact that Crocodile Dundee, the most successful Australian film ever, and its sequel
had made a combined $570 million.

"Our view is that the share of profits from films, videos, television, merchandising
and other appearances (to Mr Limb) is unlikely to have exceeded $40 million," the court
said.

The court said it also had to consider that only a small percentage of films make any
profit, let alone a profit of a size comparable to Crocodile Dundee.

The $10.25 million payout awarded today was made up of $5 million for loss of commercial
gains, $3.25 million for the cost of rebuilding the dinosaur and interest of $2 million.

Mr Limb's 30-metre long, 18-tonne dinosaur was activated by hydraulics and controlled
by mini computers, and was capable of breathing, growling and moving.

The model was reduced to a metal frame by a blaze started by cutting equipment used
to dismantle its enclosure.

It had featured as a major attraction at the 1985 Royal Adelaide Show.

The Full Court reserved its judgment on how to divide up the amount to be paid by defendants
David Parker, Terry Edwards and Jonathon Foote, who were employed to pull the enclosure
down.

Show organisers, the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society (RAHS) were today
excluded from liability.

RAHS faced a bill of more than $9 million under the initial decision.

RAHS president Jock Duncan welcomed the decision.

He said the society had found it difficult to plan its future after the original judgment.

AAP scl/pc/bwl

KEYWORD: TREX

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