PPBA partner Mark Robinson has been running hard on the Reed Constructions case these last five and half years so SiN took a look at the most recent statement of accounts and minutes of meetings to see what he’s been getting for his efforts. Backed with funds from Pat Maloney’s Litigation Capital Management, Robinson has been pursuing an insolvent trading claim against two Reed directors, Geoff Reed and Derry Hill, who…
More than 20 per cent of liquidations could involve illegal phoenix activity according to confidential Australian Tax Office (ATO) data divulged this week by Minister for Financial Services Kelly O’Dwyer, who also laid bare the inadequacy of efforts to curb the practice and eradicate complicit liquidators during a speech to Parliament on Wednesday. The Member for Higgins addressed the House of Representatives on the underlying purpose of the…
It’s four years since Steve Kugel severed his association with Anthony Warner and walked out of their lucrative partnership CRS Warner-Kugel. Although the blood’s all bad the two liquidators will be compelled to occupy the same relatively confined space when Kugel’s case against Warner is heard in the NSW Supreme Court. The hearing was due to kick off this week but an amended statement of claim filed by Kugel though…
The year is done, Christmas is come and for SiN it is time to replenish the reservoir of curiosity ahead of what promises to be a fascinating 2018. From next year the Insolvency Law Reform Act (ILRA) will be in full swing. Insolvency practitioners will face a world where creditors will have expanded powers. Appointees will need to get used to being replaced. Courts too…
In being refused his fees and legals, Jirsch Sutherland’s Liam Bellamy has extracted useful clarity from the courts on the question of the costs that can be claimed when an insolvency practitioner is required to attend a mandatory examination, particularly one that requires a practitioner to travel to the ends of the Earth or indeed to destinations even further flung, like Perth. The decision was…
SiN opens by apologising for the crime of coincidence which sees us writing about Jamieson Louttit for the second time this week. The coincidence can be explained by pointing to the small size of the Australian insolvency profession. Practitioners can’t help but cross paths on rival appointments and today’s tale doesn’t deal solely with the Pitt Street principal of Louttit & Associates. PPB Advisory’s (PPBA) Mark Robinson…
Pitcher Partners’ Andrew Yeo has lost an enterprising bid to have a deed of settlement involving architect to the affluent Nicholas Day set aside as a voidable transaction after a voluminous ruling by Victorian Supreme Court judge Melanie Sloss. Day’s work is regularly snapped up by Melbourne’s wealthiest but according to Shot One Pty Ltd (in liq.) & Anor v Day & Anor [2017] VSC 741 (7…
The arm wrestle over $835,021.94 paid into a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) has come to a possible conclusion in the West Australian Supreme Court of Appeal with a judge overturning an earlier decision of the WA Supreme Court. As a result Pitcher Partners’ Bryan Hughes and Daniel Bredenkamp as receivers and managers of Pluton Resources have been found to be entitled to the funds ahead of…
Jirsch Sutherland’s Malcolm Howell and Farnsworth Shepard’s Adam Shepard politely locked horns at a meeting of creditors last week in a tussle over the usual things – they being the admittance of proof of debts and the trustee Shepard had nominated to replace Howell – as well as the less usual – that being the right to an audio recording of the meeting. The bankrupt in…
Motor neurone disease is a crushing illness and in the case of registered liquidator and trustee David Shannon, the insidious disease has singled out a victim whose popularity among his insolvency peers cannot it seems be doubted. One of his close friends described him as an outstanding mentor and teacher with an arid sense of humour; a lawyer told SiN he was one of the…