The year is done, Christmas is come and for SiN it is time to replenish the reservoir of curiosity ahead of what promises to be a fascinating 2018. From next year the Insolvency Law Reform Act (ILRA) will be in full swing. Insolvency practitioners will face a world where creditors will have expanded powers. Appointees will need to get used to being replaced. Courts too…
In being refused his fees and legals, Jirsch Sutherland’s Liam Bellamy has extracted useful clarity from the courts on the question of the costs that can be claimed when an insolvency practitioner is required to attend a mandatory examination, particularly one that requires a practitioner to travel to the ends of the Earth or indeed to destinations even further flung, like Perth. The decision was…
SiN opens by apologising for the crime of coincidence which sees us writing about Jamieson Louttit for the second time this week. The coincidence can be explained by pointing to the small size of the Australian insolvency profession. Practitioners can’t help but cross paths on rival appointments and today’s tale doesn’t deal solely with the Pitt Street principal of Louttit & Associates. PPB Advisory’s (PPBA) Mark Robinson…
Pitcher Partners’ Andrew Yeo has lost an enterprising bid to have a deed of settlement involving architect to the affluent Nicholas Day set aside as a voidable transaction after a voluminous ruling by Victorian Supreme Court judge Melanie Sloss. Day’s work is regularly snapped up by Melbourne’s wealthiest but according to Shot One Pty Ltd (in liq.) & Anor v Day & Anor [2017] VSC 741 (7…
The former president of Yemen once described ruling the strife-torn Arab nation as like “dancing on the heads of snakes”. This week Ali Abdullah Saleh was assassinated by his former allies, who before becoming false friends of convenience had been the most reliable of enemies. Saleh’s fate got SiN wondering whether Jamieson Louttit may have developed a few dance steps of his own since last month when…
The arm wrestle over $835,021.94 paid into a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) has come to a possible conclusion in the West Australian Supreme Court of Appeal with a judge overturning an earlier decision of the WA Supreme Court. As a result Pitcher Partners’ Bryan Hughes and Daniel Bredenkamp as receivers and managers of Pluton Resources have been found to be entitled to the funds ahead of…
One of the most interesting aspects of chronicling the insolvency profession’s triumphs and tribulations involves the frequent observance of coincidence. The regulated population of registered liquidators might seem small, but not necessarily in the context of the amount of work available, which is a question that brings us to consideration of the sources of appointments. In the latest occurrence of coincidence, two liquidators facing efforts…
Jirsch Sutherland’s Malcolm Howell and Farnsworth Shepard’s Adam Shepard politely locked horns at a meeting of creditors last week in a tussle over the usual things – they being the admittance of proof of debts and the trustee Shepard had nominated to replace Howell – as well as the less usual – that being the right to an audio recording of the meeting. The bankrupt in…
Motor neurone disease is a crushing illness and in the case of registered liquidator and trustee David Shannon, the insidious disease has singled out a victim whose popularity among his insolvency peers cannot it seems be doubted. One of his close friends described him as an outstanding mentor and teacher with an arid sense of humour; a lawyer told SiN he was one of the…
Listening to the proceedings in Coope Litigation Management (CLM) V Octaviar this week, SiN couldn’t but ponder whether the business of bankrolling litigation might not provide more than sufficient grist for even reality television’s mill. Funding claims oxygenates the flames and on Monday CLM’s arsonist-in-chief Patrick Coope spent much of the day in the witness box at the NSW Supreme Court, hosing down insinuatory spot fires. These were started by…