UXC embroiled in Black Saturday bushfires class action lawsuit

A former wholly-owned subsidiary of IT consulting firm UXC is being sued as part of a class action lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Victoria against SP AusNet, over the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.

SP AusNet is a utilities provider in Victoria. The company's faulty powerlines were likely to have sparked the bushfires that caused the death of 40 people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Marysville, according to Victoria Police.

In a statement, SP AusNet rebuked those claims.

The class action suit, launched by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, is taking on SP AusNet and a number of other parties on behalf of Black Saturday victims. These parties include a former UXC business unit, which was part of the UXC Field Solutions Group and had provided asset inspection services to SP AusNet for a number of years.

UXC Field Solutions Group was sold off to advisory firm Cashel House in September 2011.

The IT consulting firm believes that the business unit had done its job adequately during its time working with SP AusNet.

"[The company] will vigorously defend any claim made against it in relation to its inspection of SP AusNet's assets," UXC said in a statement.

UXC managing director Cris Nicolli and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.