Zepinic: lost in the undergrowth

Vito Zepinic has been a celebrity litigator in courts here and in the UK – so much so that The Earl of Pembroke in the NSW Supreme Court declared him a vexatious litigant.

The Earl birched Vito, saying: 

“The public resource of the courts is not available to indulge endlessly the misconceived whims of disappointed litigants. The public interest in the finality of litigation requires that an end be brought to hopeless causes.” 

This followed 17 different proceedings over Vito’s refusal to pay Chateau Constructions for renovations at his Turramurra home. 

Over 15 years he fired off applications in the Equity Division, the Court of Appeal and the High Court – all unsuccessful attempts to revive issues that were finalised in May 2010. 

Even after he was found be vexatious, he chalked up another 23 courtroom losses. 

He had criminal convictions for passing himself off as a psychiatrist, and bogus claims that he was a doctor. He was found to have forged documents, told a heap of lies and, if that wasn’t bad enough, he also failed in another case where Judge Judith Gibson in the NSW District Court found that $10,000 he had given a former lover was a gift not a loan.

In an earlier career he served as the chief of security to Radovan Karadzic, the Butcher of Bosnia. 

He attempted the get around Pembroke’s vexatious finding by turning on his lawyers. Last year Justice Stephen Rothman in Zepinic v Eventus Lawyers Pty Ltd t/as SLF Lawyers dismissed Vito’s claim for professional negligence and damages of $323,445. 

Among other things, he complained the lawyers had not sued the trustee ordered by the court to sell the Turramurra property after the Chateau Constructions wrangle, and for failing to sue Kate McClymont for defamation over one of her articles about the dastardly Serb. 

Naturally, he wasn’t happy and sought “judicial review” of Rothman’s decision. 

It came before Justice Nicholas Chen, but Vito acting for himself did not turn up.

SLF had emailed and written a letter to let the plaintiff know of the notice of motion seeking to summarily dismiss his summons.

The correspondence was met with dead silence. Chen proceeded, finding that Vito’s case was frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process. 

The proceedings were “squarely within the ambit ” of the vexatious litigant orders made in May 2017 by His Lordship. 

HH, The Earl of Pembroke

Vito was ordered to pay the costs. 

One more doomed volley from a time-wasting obsessive – but it’s a puzzle why the plaintiff didn’t front after being specifically notified of the date, time and place.

It appears that Vito had already departed for another jurisdiction. He died in January without the court or his former lawyers knowing that their foe had moved to the final judgment. The only way he would stop clogging up the courts was to be dragged out in a box. 

There was this notice from the Lindfield Catholic Church:

“Lord, in Jesus your Son, you restored to us the gift of everlasting life. Grant that life to:
Please pray for Peter Hutchings of our parish ,who died through the week, that he may be received into the Lord’s loving embrace. The Funeral Mass for Peter will be celebrated this Thursday 15th February at 10am at our Killara church.

Recently deceased: Linda Yee, Kath Evans, Vito Zepinic.”