PKF’s Brad Tonks. FEG Active Creditor Recovery Unit Director Henry Carr. There would have been only measured satisfaction in the offices of PKF partner Brad Tonks and his lawyers at O’Neill Partners after the NSW Supreme Court yesterday delivered them a potentially significant victory against the Commonwealth’s FEG Recovery Division in respect of the dreaded interplay of sections 556 and 561 of the Corporations Act…
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…
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…
Hamilton Murphy’s Stephen Dixon. The Federal Court has refused to find that Victoria Project Pty Ltd (VPPL) liquidator Stephen Dixon and his firm misled shareholders when he told them his fees to complete a members voluntary winding up (MVL) would be capped at $50,000 plus out of pocket expenses and GST. As is disclosed in Dixon (Liquidator), in the matter of Victoria Project Pty Ltd…
Hall Chadwick’s Richard Lawrence. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. A liquidators’ remuneration application lodged in the Supreme Court of Victoria is being opposed by The Australian Tax Office (ATO) on the basis that much of the work should have been performed by more junior staff. In an 82 page affidavit dated December 21, 2022 ATO senior insolvency advisor Gary Busby outlines six grounds of objection to…
Mackay Goodwin’s Mitchell Ball. Mitchell Ball has chosen to abandon a final remuneration claim in the winding up of Speedy Ventilation Pty Ltd (Speedy) after a contributory asked the court to scrutinise the Mackay Goodwin director’s fees going back as far as 2016. “Mr Ball’s application for additional remuneration had the difficulty that, on any view, the remuneration claimed was large by reference to the…
Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. Hall Chadwick partner Kathleen Vouris. Reading the latest report to creditors from the liquidators of Orbis Commodities Pty Ltd, iNO is yet again moved to ponder on the wisdom of forcing appointment takers to provide a life-of-job fee estimate in their initial notice to creditors. When the estimate is between $50,000 and $100,000 and 18 months later the amount being sought…
Hall Chadwick partner Sule Arnautovic. Dermott McVeigh of Avior Consulting. Back to the drawing board was the message for Avior Consulting’s Dermott McVeigh after a judge refused the Perth-based practitioner’s application for approval of a lift in receivership fees. For Hall Chadwick’s Sule Arnautovic however, who was also in the Corporations List queue on Monday applying for approval of remuneration earned whilst an administrator and…
WA Insolvency Solutions’ Gary Anderson. WA Insolvency Solutions’ Jimmy Trpcevski. The law is a wonderful thing but on occasion its inevitable frailties can sometimes undermine faith in its efficient operation. In the case of HHA Architects Pty Ltd (HHA) a judge of the Supreme Court of West Australia in July last year found that the company should be wound up and liquidators appointed on the…
Hall Chadwick’s Richard Lawrence. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. As iNO reported back in July, Hall Chadwick partners Richard Albarran and Richard Lawrence are determined to be paid for the work they did on the tempestuous Tauro Capital administration before creditors replaced them in October 2020. At the time iNO speculated that some creditors at least might be just as determined to deny them. We can…