The Supreme Court has ended the long-running Saxmere fine wool case, saying there is no public interest in hearing an appeal.
In 1998 Saxmere took the Wool Board to court, arguing that the board, unlawfully under the Wool Board Act, refused to differentiate saxon from merino wool and unlawfully declined to help them with promotion and development costs.
Saxmere's case has been rejected by the High Court and Court of Appeal.
In its decision released today the Supreme Court said any challenges to those decisions had no grounds to proceed.
"We are not persuaded that there is any good reason in the public interest for hearing the appeal," the Supreme Court justices said.
The case led to the resignation last year of Supreme Court Justice Bill Wilson, after he failed, while sitting on the Court of Appeal which was considering the case, to step down or make full disclosure of his business and financial relationship with the Wool Board's lawyer Alan Galbraith.
In a statement this afternoon, the Wool Board called today's decision "the end of a long and tortuous road".
Wool Board Disestablishment Company Limited (DisCo) chairman Bruce Munro said the board always believed it had acted lawfully.
Mr Munro said it had been very frustrating that the case had been extended through accusations of apparent bias of Justice Wilson.
"The judgment confirms there was no real bias. The facts of the case were against Saxmere from the outset," he said.
DisCo could now allocate about $7 million of the Wool Board's remaining cash assets which had been held up.
"We can now get on with the task we were mandated by legislation to undertake -- get these assets into the hands of qualifying wool growers."
