Judgment

Fair Work Ombudsman redefines DoCA limits

Deloitte’s Neil Cussen. Ex-Deloitte Canberra partner Eddie Senatore. Those familiar with the decision of the Federal Court in Fair Work Ombudsman v Foot & Thai Massage Pty Ltd (in liquidation) [2019] FCA 1601 will know that it has some interesting implications for insolvency practitioners in terms of what claims are and are not extinguished by a DoCA, as well providing lurid and engaging details in…


Cor Cordis pair to pay $10k for bungled deregistration

Cor Cordis partner Alan Walker. Being replaced as liquidators is no reason to lodge a Form 5603 (End of administration return) with ASIC but that is what Cor Cordis partner Alan Walker apparently did back in January this year after he and colleague Jason Bing-Fai Tang were ousted a month earlier. The unfortunate consequence of this error was that the replacement liquidators – PwC’s Daniel…


Bankrupt has VA Ward scrambling for validation

Mackay Goodwin Director Grahame Ward. Image courtesy Mackay Goodwin. Internet advertising certainly generates leads but as Mackay Goodwin’s Grahame Ward discovered, leads can come with strings attached. Ward was appointed voluntary administrator (VA) of PostNet Australia Pty Ltd back on June 3 by resolution of sole director Robyn Lau. Ward’s DIRRI of June 4, 2019 reveals the appointment came via the website of the Mackay…


Orders ain’t orders when receivers’ fees quadruple

Sean Wengel of William Buck NSW. When a court orders receivers’ fees be capped at $30,000 and they subsequently bill for $200,000, you know something somewhere has gone way way wrong. In the matter of Shanmugathaas & Anor v Paramanirupan & Ors [2019] NSWSC 1219 we may be seeing another example of how the new powers bestowed upon creditors by ILRA 2016 will sometimes generate…


11th hour and 59th minute VA bid dismissed

Chifley Advisory’s Gavin Moss When an insolvency practitioner accepts an appointment as voluntary administrator (VA) less than 24 hours before a winding up application is due to be heard, a casual observer might wonder what’s afoot. Yesterday iNO was moved to ponder just such whilst reading In the matter of Edifice Australia Pty Limited [2019] NSWSC 1215. Chifley Advisory’s Gavin Moss is the practitioner concerned…


Halifax and the maddening complexity of commingling

KPMG’s Phil Quinlan KPMG’s Morgan Kelly. An application for the issue of a “Letter of Request” to the High Court of New Zealand (NZHC) has been ruled “premature” due to the application being ex-parte, but the liquidators of online broker Halifax Investment Services PtyLtd (Halifax) are almost certain to reapply given the unbridled intermingling of client and company funds across Halifax’s Australian and Kiwi operations….


More liquidators join retiree ranks

Grant Thornton CEO Greg Keith. Grant Thornton’s Paul Billingham. The roll of registered liquidators – currently standing at 653 – is losing a pair of veterans in the form of Grant Thornton’s Greg Keith and Paul Billingham, both of whom are planning to persist in professional life without the benefit or the burden of a license to liquidate. While the pair’s intentions have been no…


Receivers at odds over residual funds

Pitcher Partners’ Bryan Hughes. Auxilium Partners’ Bob Jacobs. Over in West Australia there’s been an interesting development in the stoush between the current and former receivers of Pluton Resources over the status of, and entitlement to, so-called residual funds. In Robert Allan Jacobs as Receiver and Manager of Pluton Resources Ltd (Receiver and Manager Appointed) (In Liq) -v- Hughes [2018] WASC 414 (9 August 2019)…


ATO overlooks own audit during CFC DoCA objections

Balance Insolvency principal Tim Cook. An appeal against a judgment that went the way of FTI Consulting’s John Park and Kelly-Anne Trenfield kicked off in the Federal Court yesterday and there’s plenty to ponder as it pertains to Citadel Finance Corporation (CFC) and its labour hire subsidiary Action Scaffolding & Rigging Pty Limited (AS&R). A financier of its own operating entities, CFC is the appellant…


Mega Dyldam development yet to escape liquidation

Deloitte’s David Mansfield. Proceedings to set aside the winding up of a Dyldam group company buckling under onerous obligations and weakening property prices have highlighted the different way judges and liquidators sometimes see solvency. In the matter of Rainbow Carlingford One Pty Limited (in liquidation) (ACN 604 122 054) [2019] NSWSC 971 the financial analysis of Deloitte’s David Mansfield was submitted in favour of an…