A "complexity and systems thinker" says his multimillion dollar court win over the Canberra Institute of Technology vindicates his company and its reputation.
The Canberra Institute of Technology has been ordered to pay Patrick Hollingworth's company $2.4 million after a controversial contract that later sparked a corruption inquiry was terminated.
But the CIT has already flagged it will seek options to appeal the Supreme Court judgement.
The $4.99 million two-year contract was signed in early 2022 under the institute's former chief executive Leanne Cover but it was suspended and later terminated in July of that year.
Redrouge Nominees, trading as Think Garden, had alleged the institute had "repudiated the agreement" and, in doing so, was liable to pay the remaining $3.4 million left on the contract.
On Friday, Justice David Mossop ordered CIT to pay Think Garden $2.4 million and cover his court costs.
Justice Mossop found that while CIT was not required to pay the remaining $3.4 million left in the contract, the institute was liable for damages as compensation from "loss of bargain".
In a statement, Mr Hollingworth said the decision "vindicates Think Garden which was treated grossly unfairly by the CIT repudiating its contractual obligations".
"It's regrettable that CIT fought this matter out forcing us to incur the costs of a trial and delaying the resolution by two years," he stated.
"This litigation and the circumstances giving rise to litigation have been damaging to the reputation of Think Garden and myself and today's judgment provides vindication of our professional reputations."
CIT board chair Kate Lundy said the institute would be reviewing the judgment to see if there are any avenues for appeal.
"The contract in question was signed by the previous CEO who resigned from her role in June 2024. The CIT board, interim CEO and the current CIT executive were not involved in the negotiation of this contract, nor any approval process," she said.
"The CIT board and new executive have put into place strong and significant improvements to financial management, governance and procurement whilst still providing high quality teaching and learning for our students."
The ACT Integrity Commission found former CIT chief executive Leanne Cover had engaged in "serious corrupt conduct" in the awarding of the nearly $5 million contract.
The commission found former skills minister Chris Steel and the wider CIT board had been misled. The commission is still investigating the matter but has not made any findings against Mr Hollingworth.
Calculations presented to the ACT Supreme Court showed that if the contract had not been terminated, Mr Hollingworth would have made a profit of $2,118,981 out of a total revenue of more than $3 million.
In reality he made a loss of $48,800 in labour costs.
Justice Mossop ruled CIT pay these damages from "repudiation of the agreement" including more than $240,000 in interest.
Companies owned by Mr Hollingworth had been engaged by the CIT in a series of contracts spanning a five-year period. The nearly $5 million contract was the largest and was set to run for two years. Think Garden had already been paid nearly $1.7 million on the execution of the contract.
It included an agreement to provide services to "detect early/weak signals and build trends to improve products and services" and "establish and self-sustain practices that allow for iterative learning cycles across a range of temporal (weeks, months, years and decades) and spatial (individuals, teams, departments, colleges/divisions) scales".
Mr Hollingworth told the Supreme Court last month Think Garden had been working hard on the contract.
"Think Garden had re-committed to CIT for another 24 months and CIT had been our largest and most committed client for a number of years prior to that," he told the court.
CIT indefinitely paused the agreement with Think Garden on June 27, 2022. This was days after the ACT Integrity Commission announced it was investigating the matter.
By July 7, 2022, Think Garden provided a formal notice to CIT, claiming it was in breach. The alleged breaches included the institute cancelling meetings, placing a pause on the agreement, and "staff not engaging with Think Garden".
Later that month, Think Garden provided notice of termination of agreement demanding that the institute pay millions in outstanding money.
Last month, barrister for CIT, Andrew Berger KC, said that during contract negotiations Mr Hollingworth had "pushed for more and more to be paid sooner rather than later".
Mr Berger said this "top-heavy" contract, requiring 33 per cent be paid before work even started, "does not sit comfortably" with Mr Hollingworth's argument that the whole price was liable to be paid.
Think Garden's lawyers had argued the contract price was a singular sum even though it was payable in instalments and Mr Hollingworth's company had brought intellectual property to the contract.
Justice Mossop ruled against this but found Think Garden was owed damages from "loss of bargain" and, in addition, cost costs.
