Hastie Group liquidator Craig Crosbie. Remember that profusion of Linked In posts that gushed forth before Christmas from triumphal law firms representing the successful respondents in the Hastie Group liquidators’ bank guarantee action? Well that hubristic effusion might in future be seen to have been the highpoint of their clients’ defiance after Hastie Group’s liquidator last week filed and served an appeal to that Christmas…
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…
Hastie Group liquidator Craig Crosbie. The ongoing saga of the Hastie Group Pty Ltd continued yesterday with liquidator Craig Crosbie flagging a possible appeal as the Federal Court delivered reasons in respect of costs. In Hastie Group Limited (in liq) v Multiplex Constructions Pty Ltd (Formerly Brookfield Multiplex Constructions Pty Ltd) (No 4) [2022] FCA 1575 retiring judge John Middleton made multiple costs orders in…
Hall Chadwick WA partner Cameron Shaw. HLB Mann Judd WA principal Kim Wallman. Cameron Shaw and Richard Albarran have been ordered to pay a rival liquidator’s costs but avoided having to pay them personally after they unsuccessfully sought to have a special purpose liquidator (SPL) appointed to Perth Fashion Council WA (In Liquidation) (PFCWA). “The function of a costs order is not simply to ‘reward’…
Chris Baskerville of Jirsch Sutherland. Bailments. Security interests. Deeds of settlement and insolvency. It’s a formula liquidator Chris Baskerville has found can leave a bitter aftertaste. So good luck to those currently coming before Labor senator Deb O’Neill and others of her species as they hear submissions as part of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services review of Corporate Insolvency in Australia….
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…
KordaMentha partner Kate Conneely. KordaMentha partner Rahul Goyal. Those few independent insolvency firms that operate at the top end of the market – McGrathNicol and KordaMentha specifically – can have a hard time clearing the conflict bar. Secureds are forever knocking on their doors, begging to avail themselves of their forensic expertise and often they’ll come knocking again once the investigating accountant (IA) reports have…
BRI Ferrier’s David Coyne. Former Barokes liquidator James Koutsoukos. A judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria has cracked a can of hurt after approving an application by a creditor to bring proceedings in the name of the company against the company’s liquidators. Whilst ruling that the creditor must agree to indemnify the company in liquidation again any adverse costs, Justice Richard Attiwill found that…
Wexted Advisors partner Andrew McCabe. Wexted Advisors founder and principal Joe Hayes. Lavishing creditors with a fat dividend on the eve of the festive season is no doubt an aspiration close to the heart of every insolvency practitioner, so one can imagine the distinctly unChristmas-like sentiments that must have echoed through the Pitt Street offices of Wexted Advisors early Monday morning. Unwelcome correspondence had arrived…