Shaw Gidley principal Paul Gidley. Rodgers Reidy’s Andrew Barnden. There are few things that should get the pulse racing like consenting to become administrator of a corporation about to be wound up. Knowing there’s a problematic debt, knowing that a hearing’s imminent and knowing not much else about an entity’s affairs must elevate the tension for even the most cocksure practitioner, especially in circumstances where,…
Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. KordaMentha’s Richard Tucker. In insolvency, incumbency has its virtues, if for no other reason than that creditors desperate to have a voice might generally prefer the first devil presiding over their particular hell. And even when the incumbent is shown to charge more for the privilege of impaling claims on the trident of pari passu, being first has its advantages, as…
Hall Chadwick partner Blair Pleash. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. Some of Hall Chadwick’s finest have encountered potholes recently in their regular transit through insolvency’s rougher reaches. iNO’s readers may recall our reports of two separate appointments from which Hall Chadwick partners were separated from the fee teat by court orders, wielded machete-like by judges unconvinced by evidence served up to justify the administrators’ installation. In…
Victorian liquidator Peter Goodin. We hear much about first responders but not so much about non responders. We might however hear a bit more after a Victorian liquidator was ordered to personally pay more than $21,000 in indemnity costs after he repeatedly failed to respond to a creditor’s correspondence. Given that the creditor had wanted the meeting to consider a resolution to replace the incumbent…
Vincents’ Nick Combis. Merchant Advisory’s Louisa Sijabat. A successful appeal in the Federal Court has left two registered trustees facing a hefty costs order from an unenviable position deep in the hole on their fees. The pair, who’ve been pursuing almost $550,000 they claimed the bankrupt had paid into his superannuation fund to defeat creditors, had opposed the appeal. But the decision handed down this…
Hogan Sprowles’ Brendan Copeland. If you’re going to ask a court to find that a director traded a company whilst it was insolvent, you need to know the dates on which the relevant debts were incurred. As one Sydney liquidator recently discovered, failing to do so can be fatal for your statement of claim and it’s never fun to find a costs order tacked to…
Hastie Group liquidator Craig Crosbie. The ongoing saga of the Hastie Group Pty Ltd continued yesterday with liquidator Craig Crosbie flagging a possible appeal as the Federal Court delivered reasons in respect of costs. In Hastie Group Limited (in liq) v Multiplex Constructions Pty Ltd (Formerly Brookfield Multiplex Constructions Pty Ltd) (No 4) [2022] FCA 1575 retiring judge John Middleton made multiple costs orders in…
Hall Chadwick WA partner Cameron Shaw. HLB Mann Judd WA principal Kim Wallman. Cameron Shaw and Richard Albarran have been ordered to pay a rival liquidator’s costs but avoided having to pay them personally after they unsuccessfully sought to have a special purpose liquidator (SPL) appointed to Perth Fashion Council WA (In Liquidation) (PFCWA). “The function of a costs order is not simply to ‘reward’…
Chris Baskerville of Jirsch Sutherland. Bailments. Security interests. Deeds of settlement and insolvency. It’s a formula liquidator Chris Baskerville has found can leave a bitter aftertaste. So good luck to those currently coming before Labor senator Deb O’Neill and others of her species as they hear submissions as part of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services review of Corporate Insolvency in Australia….
KordaMentha’s Rahul Goyal. KordaMentha partner Michael Korda. A year ago it would’ve been a timid receiver indeed who wouldn’t back him or herself to conjure a surplus if given the opportunity to sell apartment 1306 in the record breaking Opera Residences development at Circular Quay. Further embolden said receiver, or in this case receivers, with hubristic valuations obtained before rate hikes sucked the froth out…