Inevitably, measures implemented to cope with COVID 19 lockdowns would generate consequences unforeseen but few could have predicted that an initiative intended to preserve jobs would lead to a judge slashing a liquidator’s fees. That however is precisely what’s happened to Jirsch Sutherland managing partner Bradd Morelli, who saw his claim for almost $25,000 in remuneration lopped by $10,000 after a judge ruled that by…
McGrathNicol’s Rob Kirman. McGrathNicol’s Rob Brauer. Questions of priority of entitlement to trust assets continue to vex even the most unflappable of insolvency practitioners and as a recent court judgment shows, even judicial eminences are wary of conclusive excess. In the matter of Francis (Trustee), in the matter of Fotios (Bankrupt) v Helios Corporation Pty Ltd [2022] FCA 199 Federal Court judge Craig Colvin explains…
Cor Cordis Melbourne partner Bruno Secatore. Cor Cordis partner Neil Cussen. You have to wonder why successful, experienced practitioners accept appointments as administrators when they know there’s winding up applications afoot, other entities in the group are already in liquidation and according to their DIRRI, no indemnity in the offing. Is it evidence of a healthy appetite for risk? Or the desperation that prevails in…
CRS Warner principal Anthony Warner Sydney trustee Anthony Warner must be sitting on an estate flush with funds or is backed by a reliably liquid indemnifier after an appeals court deprived him of a nugget of residential gold and ordered him to pay the appellant’s costs of both the primary and appeal proceedings. iNO’s mail is that combined expenses could exceed $600,000. If Warner locked…
Being stung with an order to pay opponents’ costs can’t ever feel good but when the upside is orders freezing almost $6 million in proceeds from the sale of a property in the gracefully decaying suburb of Woollahra in inner Sydney then maybe it’s a shot of venom any trustee would bare their arm for. “The Bankruptcy Trustee did not on the interlocutory applications seek to establish, by evidence and…
Duff & Phelps’ Marcus Ayres. Duff & Phelps’ Steve Parbery. As iNO reported last week, Duff & Phelps duo Marcus Ayres and Steve Parbery have had their hands full winding up Queensland coal mine operator ICRA Rolleston Pty Ltd (ICRA). ICRA’s sole director – John Phillip Canavan – suspects the pair of having a conflict with ICRA’ former joint venture partner and his nemesis Rolleston…
LMFMIF receiver David Whyte. FTI Consulting’s John Park. When David Whyte announced his retirement from the BDO partnership in mid-2021, he spoke of a post-work existence devoted to the beach, the golf course and the cabins of aircraft bound no doubt for destinations neglected during his more than 40 years as a banker, accountant and liquidator. “Will finish a couple of old court appointments along…
Ex-liquidator and former Jirsch Sutherland partner Amanda Young. Ex-liquidator and convicted fraud Amanda Young has avoided gaol after a judge yesterday ordered that the 41 year old serve a term of imprisonment totalling 27 months while subject to an intensive corrections order (ICO). At the conclusion of a two and half hour hearing District Court judge Kara Shead said that but for Young’s fragile mental…
KordaMentha’s Jen Nettleton. KordaMentha partner Rahul Goyal. How sweet it is when a liquidation actually delivers. When creditors get 100 cents in every dollar owed and there’s fat sufficient to cover every hour billed, no matter how big a percentage of assets total remuneration comprises. And best of all, a court decrees the fees are proportionate. How rare it is too. But not this week…
Morton + Lee Insolvency’s Gavin Morton. “No”. With that one word Australia’s collective population of registered liquidators and insolvency specialists let out a resounding cheer, because it meant that the Full Bench of the Federal Court had decided not to ruin their Christmas. “The creditor claims to be entitled to set off its obligation under s 588FF of the Act to repay the preference received…