Directors

Air-con failure not the only reason examinees fuming

Brooke Bird’s Robyn Erskine. There were testy exchanges in Federal Court room 19B yesterday, and it wasn’t just the examinees being put to question by counsel for Brooke Bird’s Robyn Erskine who were getting hot under the collar as the air conditioning failed. More than once barrister Scott Aspinall remarked about the oppressive atmosphere in the court where he has been grilling individuals associated with…


Proof of debt decisions could cost Victorian a VA

Greyhouse Partners’ Ben Verney. O’Brien Palmer’s Chris Palmer. Victorian practitioner Ben Verney is clinging tenaciously to the administration of Icon Constructions (NSW) Pty Ltd but decisions he made in respect of proofs of debt at the first meeting could see him stripped of the appointment before the year is ended. Lawyers for Owners Corporations (OCs), developers and unit owners claiming for building defects – this…


Ex-staff flung under the bus as bosses get grilled

Struck-off liquidator David Iannuzzi. Former Veritas Advisory director Steve Naidenov. The public examination conducted by Brooke Bird’s Robyn Erskine over the last month has been instructive on multiple levels. For a start, it’s put ex-liquidator David Iannuzzi in the witness box for the second time in as many months. That’s an ordeal Iannuzzi might have thought he’d avoided when in November last year Federal Court…


Respected liquidator dodges inquiry bullet, for now

Jones Partners’ Bruce Gleeson. Highly regarded Jones Partners’ principal Bruce Gleeson has dodged a bullet after NSW Supreme Court judge Ashley Black this week chose not to initiate an inquiry into his conduct as liquidator of Military History Tours Australia Pty Ltd (MHT), a company which offered travel to sites like Gallipoli until relations with Swiss-based cruise ship operator MSC Cruises SA soured in 2014….


Jirsch Sutherland’s new recruit can walk the walk

Jirsch Sutherland’s new recruit, Paul Pattison. Jirsch Sutherland may have lost a veteran partner with the departure next March of Sule Arnautovic but it’s recently gained a national business development manager, and if the firm wanted someone who can relate to business owners going through the wringer then who better than ex-liquidator and ex-trustee in bankruptcy Paul Pattison? About a decade ago, Victoria-based Pattison went…


Appetite for excitement pinged by judge

CJG Advisory’s Mathew Gollant. Melbourne-based IP Mathew Gollant must possess a fair appetite for excitement given his acceptance of an appointment as liquidator by creditors voluntary liquidation (CVL) of ACN 081 014 208 Pty Ltd, which until September 30, 2020 went by the name Millennium Electronics Pty Ltd (Millennium). iNO’s arrived at this conclusion after reading the judgment of South Australian Supreme Court judge Mark…


Liquidator foiled after payment ruled not void

O’Brien Palmer’s Chris Palmer. There are times when one is compelled to ask what motivates a liquidator to pursue an 11th hour payment to a creditor when the sought after sum, once costs are deducted, amounts to sixth fifths of bugger all? For iNO such a time came on Tuesday as we read the judgement of Justice Fabian Gleeson In the matter of Skypac Aviation…


Guillotine evaded, but indemnity costs the price

DCL Advisory’s Thomas Dawson. A recent decision of the NSW Supreme Court has highlighted why liquidators and their legal advisors need not think an absolute guillotine order precludes them from having a fresh crack, though in winning a motion to amend, liquidator Thomas Dawson has also copped an indemnity costs order for delay. In Dawson as liquidator of J R Line and Safety Services Pty…


Ferrier Hodgson pair duped by fake mortgages

KPMG’s Max Donnelly. KPMG’s Robyn Duggan. A judge has suggested liquidators and former partners of Ferrier Hodgson demonstrated one of the last desirable characteristics in those responsible for administering insolvent entities – they were too trusting. In Combined Property Holdings Pty Ltd v Galea & Ors [2020] QSC 338 Justice James Henry of the Supreme Court of Queensland in Cairns recounts how Robyn Duggan and…


Seven month silence earns adverse costs order

Worrells Partner Aaron Lucan. Worrells’ partner Aaron Lucan has been ordered to pay an indemnity costs order personally after indulging a seven month silence in respect of proceedings brought against the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) by a company to which Lucan is the appointed liquidator. “The effect of ordering the first plaintiff to pay the defendants’ costs would be to visit the consequences of…