The Poole decision was made in respect of the action brought against Chubb Insurance Company of Australia by Poole, after Chubb refused to pay for legal expenses incurred by Poole during his appearance at independent commission against corruption hearings (Operation Acacia) in 2013.

The court’s decision found in favour of Poole and his reasonable expenses and costs totalling $658,745.16 are now to be paid by Chubb.

“Importantly, in the decision, Justice Stevenson found on the evidence before him that Mr Poole had not behaved dishonestly in the application process for EL 7270 [Doyles Creek], in contrast to the finding made by ICAC in relation to Mr Poole,” NuCoal said in statement.

“NuCoal’s legal team is considering the Poole Decision and other legal developments and will assess if and how they can best assist NuCoal’s legal strategy, including the constitutional case before the High Court of Australia, as well as its potential impact in the anticipated judgment in the Judicial Review or otherwise.”

The court was not persuaded that Poole knew, or that a reasonable person in his position could be expected to know, that there was “emerging public controversy” that would give rise to the need for Poole to disclose to Chubb the possibility of an investigation by ICAC or a public inquiry.

NuCoal has a High Court hearing scheduled in February for its challenge against an unprecedented NSW government mining amendment which took away its Doyles Creek project licence.

The hearing, over the constitutional challenge to the Mining Amendment (ICAC Operations Jasper and Acacia) Act 2014, is lined up for February 10-12 in the Canberra-based court.

“NuCoal is represented by its solicitors, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan, and has briefed Walter Sofronoff QC, former solicitor-general of Queensland, to appear on its behalf at the hearing,” the company said.

The controversial mining amendment was passed in January, on the back of ICAC revelations into how the licence was awarded by former mining minister Ian Macdonald to a former union leader-linked company that NuCoal later acquired.

“The Mining Amendment Act did indeed cancel the Doyles Creek licence, but it went much further than that – it denied NuCoal any right to compensation for the cancellation,” NuCoal chairman Gordon Galt said in the NuCoal annual report.