Appeal court reopens a 2016 exit deal - and hands HR a deed-drafting lesson
A "Flirty Thirty" birthday party, a social media video, and a deed of release have left HR with a clear lesson on how exit agreements really work.
The New South Wales Court of Appeal has partly upheld an appeal by former Colliers International real estate agent Matthew Hudson, finding the company owes him commission on one of three disputed deals tied to his 2016 departure. The decision, handed down on May 20, 2026, lands neatly in HR territory: it turns on how a separation deed interacts with an underlying commission policy, and what happens when the two are not lined up.
Hudson joined Colliers in October 2013 and was promoted to associate director, retail leasing, in February 2016. A year earlier, in June 2015, he had thrown a thirtieth birthday party themed "Huddo's Flirty Thirty." By June 2016, a video of the party had drawn media attention - coming, the judgment notes, while Colliers was already fielding coverage of sexual harassment allegations made against another employee. Hudson and the firm agreed to part ways. His supervisor, Michael Bate, led the negotiations for Colliers.
The exit was set out in a Deed of Release dated June 22, 2016, requiring Colliers to pay Hudson various amounts including commission on pending deals listed in Schedule 3. Three of those deals later became the dispute: a lease at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Circular Quay, a Westfield Sydney rooftop lease, and a...
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