A QUIRINDI serial pest has failed in his most outlandish lawsuit yet, trademarking his name and then suing council for millions when they wrote a letter back to him.
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Les Lobsey, who in the past has threatened to sue Liverpool Plains Shire Council (LPSC) multiple times and even tried to establish his own sovereign state, will be forced to pay
council’s legal costs after he had his latest stunt dismissed by the NSW Supreme Court earlier this month.
In a letter to council last year, Mr Lobsey warned his name was trademarked and council would be forced to pay an initial $500,000 and then a further $1 million every time they printed it.
In mid-2013, council sent two letters back to Mr Lobsey – one relating to an altercation he had with council employees – and addressed the correspondence to him by name.
Mr Lobsey claimed as he had not authorised the use of his name, council had breached common law rights and were liable for damages.
But in his judgment, Justice Francois Kunc described the flaws in Mr Lobsey’s case as being “obvious and fatal” and labelled his claims “plainly hopeless”.
“I can see no basis upon which Mr Lobsey could claim to be the ‘author’ of his own name,” Justice Kunc said.
“If anyone was the author of his name, it would be his parents.”
Mr Lobsey, who was not in court for the ruling, had not even bothered registering his name as a trademark before launching legal action, Justice Kunc said.
He said council had acted in good faith by addressing the letters to him.
Mr Lobsey’s cases against LPSC general manager Rob Hunt, council employee Michael Urquhart and the state government were also dismissed.
Mr Hunt said he was relieved the case was finally over.
“We’re obviously happy council has won but we don’t believe it should ever have got to this point,” Mr Hunt said.
“We’re just hoping to get our costs back now on behalf of the community.”
