A northern NSW boss who defended a sexual harassment lawsuit by likening himself to the aloof romantic hero Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice will have to pay even more to his victim.
Owen Hughes made numerous advances towards Catherine Hill after she began working for the solicitor in Bangalow, near Byron Bay, in 2015.
His conduct included entering her bedroom on a work trip in only his underwear and telling her in an email that she wouldn't have problems at work if she slept with him.
"EXPRESSING MY FEELINGS IS NOT HARASSMENT," he emailed her one Monday evening.
When taken to the Federal Court, Mr Hughes used confidential information about Ms Hill to attack her - a move the trial judge described as "despicable".
The judge awarded Ms Hill $170,000 in damages - a decision upheld on appeal last year.
On Friday, the Full Court of the Federal Court ordered Mr Hughes pay his former employee's costs on an indemnity basis.
The court accepted the appeal "wholly lacked merit and had been conducted in a delinquent fashion".
"The pursuit of a meritless appeal for the ulterior purpose of harassing the Respondent is more than sufficient to warrant an order that the costs be paid on an indemnity basis," the Full Court said on Friday.
Mr Hughes will also have to pay interest on the $170,000 payout, ordered in May 2019, at a rate of more than six per cent.
In their 2020 decision, the Full Court "emphatically" dismissed the appeal, condemning the solicitor's behaviour towards his employee.
"(One point Mr Hughes contended on appeal was) the evidence did not support the conclusion that he had sexually harassed the respondent because he was to be seen as being - and this was the actual submission - like Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice," appeal judge Nye Perram said at the time.
"Some of the submissions were, in my opinion, insulting. It should not have been brought and, in my opinion, should be emphatically dismissed."
Australian Associated Press
