Liquidator Gavin Moss. Photo: iNO Images Some external administrations seem genuinely cursed and given the tribulations experienced by Chifley Advisory boss Gavin Moss, the liquidation of Fogo Brazilia Franchise Holdings Pty Ltd (FBFH) would appear to be one of them. “I would nevertheless have been inclined to make a specified gross sum costs order, having regard to the impecuniosity of the plaintiffs, if the defendant…
HLB Mann Judd managing partner James Henderson. Pearce & Heers’ Mark Pearce. North of the border Pearce & Heers partners Mark Pearce and Michael Dullaway have achieved a significant victory in their tug of war with HLB Mann Judd (SE QLD) over material relating to a business sale transaction HLB Brisbane managing partner James Henderson advised on in late 2018. “The liquidators submitted that there…
SV Partners’ Darren Vardy. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. Earlier this month the chief judge in equity of the NSW Supreme Court made an order appointing the liquidator of Epic Mining as receiver and then stayed the order’s effect for 14 days. On Monday this week that stay expired and iNO confidently expects that Epic’s incumbent receivers & managers (R&Ms) will shortly receive – if they’re…
Mackay Goodwin’s Mitchell Ball. If the challenge outlined on Monday in the NSW Supreme Court proceeds, it may qualify as one of the most ill-advised attacks by a director on a liquidator’s fees mounted in many a year. That at least seemed be the opinion of presiding judge David Hammerschlag after hearing submissions on behalf of Mr Tracey Fellows, one of two directors and shareholders…
KPMG’s Peter Gothard. KPMG partner James Dampney. Hell hath no fury like a director who believes his business has been sold to a rival at undervalue, unless it’s the rage felt by the administrators who conducted the sale when they’re summonsed for examination and served with notices to produce. Before either gives such frustration vent in hell however comes the purgatory of costs and in…
Hall Chadwick partner Sule Arnautovic. What constitutes an unacceptable intrusion into a person’s affairs was laid out with clarity this week after a provisional liquidator (ProvLiq) applied for an order granting him access to a director’s passport. “Contrary to the plaintiff’s submission, access to the passport is a further significant intrusion into the defendant’s rights.” Federal Court judge Scott Goodman. On July 21 Federal Court…
McGrathNicol’s Anthony Connelly. The stench of potential phoenix activity clings to the arrangements that frustrated Gavin Morton in his capacity as administrator of TSK QLD Pty Ltd to the point he was removed by creditors and as court records show, his replacements have had an equally frustrating time cutting through the miasma. As is revealed in Connelly, in the matter of TSK QLD Pty Ltd…
CrouchAmirbeaggi partner Shabnam Amirbeaggi. As our 25th Prime Minister John Winston Howard once said: “Context is everything” and context is uppermost in the reasoning of a judge of the NSW Supreme Court who recently validated an insolvency appointment made by a non-director exercising power of attorney. The need for judicial endorsement came about because the company’s husband and wife directors have in recent times been…
RSM partner Frank Lo Pilato. It doesn’t necessarily matter if your counsel has identified a new cause of action by which substantial sums might be recovered. If the trial dates are set, the respondents are prejudiced, the judge has a side hustle and you’re held to a higher standard than the average punter then you’ve got buckleys. That at least is how it turned out…
Bankrupt IP Sam Henderson. Grant Thornton’s John McInerney. When a company owes the ATO $5 million and would have had an opportunity to pay it but for a settlement that saw it forgo $5 million of $8 million it was owed well, you have to wonder if the professionals engaged to advise on the deal were granted full access to all the facts? The question…