Legal proceedings terminated in August 2013 with a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement with taxpayers footing the bill. In October 2013, the Victorian ombudsman George Brouwer decided to launch an investigation to address Guy's decision to rezone the Ventnor site, against the original advice of his department, the department's lawyers, the local Bass Coast shire and an independent planning panel. The settlement cost Victorian taxpayers $2.5 million plus costs, for a total of more than $3.5 million, documents reveal. Senior lawyers had told the government that it should have paid a maximum of $250,000 plus legal costs. Confidential Government documents show Mr Guy ordered the multimillion-dollar payment despite repeated legal advice from a number of senior lawyers that the government had a strong case, and there was little or no grounds for a damages claim against it. "This may be winnable @ law but this is a political fight and it is unwinnable," Mr Guy is quoted as saying in confidential notes made by the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office in July 2013.