Subcontractors say it's industry practice that building company Grocon Victoria Street should have organised building permits to attach cladding to a brick wall that fell and killed three people in Melbourne's CBD.
Jonathon Clyde Westmoreland, 30, is charged with carrying out building works on the Grocon-owned site without a building permit in October 2011.
Alexander Jones, 19, his sister Bridget, 18, and Frenchwoman Marie-Faith Fiawoo, 33, were killed when a section of brick wall fell onto Swanston Street in March 2013.
Mr Westmoreland's lawyer Peter Haag told a committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday it was an honest and reasonable mistake that there was no permit.
Mr Westmoreland said he was just a labourer at the site and it was the site owner's responsibility to arrange council permits, not his.
"My thoughts were that Grocon wouldn't allow the boarding works to proceed if it didn't have all the right permissions," he said.
Mr Westmoreland was asked by his brother Tom to complete the work for Aussie Signs installation manager Doug Capon, who also told the court on Tuesday that it was industry practice for the site owner to apply for permits, and it wasn't his job to chase them.
"They shouldn't ask for jobs to be done if they don't have the right permits in place," Mr Capon said.
"It's not standard practice for us to go after building permits or planning permits."
Tom Westmoreland said he took Mr Capon at his word when accepting the job that permits were "taken care of" and believed he was referring to all relevant permits.
He said it was expected that all relevant permits would be arranged before sub-contractors arrive to start work.
Paul Holdenson, QC, put it to all three men that they had never asked whether there were building or planning permits in place, and instead had simply assumed.
They all agreed.
Both the prosecution and defence have wrapped their cases and a decision over whether Mr Westmoreland will face trial is expected on April 30.
Grocon Victoria Street was fined $250,000 in November over the incident, for failing to ensure a safe workplace.
Share
