Receivership

FEG V McGrathNicol could resolve 433 costs questions

If the former receivers of Hastie Services continue resisting Henry Carr and his FEG Recovery Team to the point where their dispute goes to hearing then the insolvency profession at large might derive some benefit, at least in terms of clarity on currently clouded questions as to costs. (Apologies for the absence of an alliteration alert). Carr and his recovery team are adamant that the…


Amerind – who’s distributed erroneously?

Well the champagne corks would’ve been popping down in the Canberra offices of FEG Recovery Czar Henry Carr this week – metaphorically of course – after the decision of the Victorian Supreme Court’s Court of Appeal in Commonwealth v Byrnes and Hewitt [2018] VSCA 41 (28 February 2018), more commonly known as Amerind. As was succinctly articulated by Melbourne barrister Carrie Rome-Sievers, the decision puts…


SiN 2017 – the Year in Review

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…


Receiver refused fees for attending examination

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…


PwC pair lose to Pitchers duo in Pluton DoCA fight

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…


Chaff flies at Senate rural lending inquisition

The transcripts of the latest session of the Senate inquiry into Lending to Primary Production Customers contain some illuminating insights into perceptions of the insolvency profession. Put simply, a few unfortunate examples of a less than ideal outcome – say a rural property being sold by receivers at a price unlikely to pop corks – seem to have been taken by the Senate Committee as…


DoE sues McGrathNicol foursome for $3 million

These days the term Disruption brings to mind new digital-based business models, demolishing the foundations of commerce with fiendishly clever and wholly amoral algorithms – but as the proceedings launched recently by the Department of Employment (DoE) against McGrathNicol demonstrate, disruption can be about new law, and the will to execute. Late last month the DoE filed a statement of claim in the Federal Court alleging breaches of…


You don’t Say? Receivers seek proportionality

dVT’s David Solomons and Antony Resnick demonstrated a hitherto undetected streak of optimism this week when they appeared before Justice Paul “Proportionality” Brereton seeking approval of remuneration accrued as receivers of Say Enterprise Pty Limited. The pair were installed by order of the court in August this year in what was described as an asset preservation role, apparently necessary due to possible breaches of freezing orders….


FTI pair claim partial victory over BDO nemesis

FTI’s John Park and his former colleague Ginette Muller are still trying to wipe off some of the opprobrium that attached itself to them after an August 2013 decision containing uncomplimentary remarks about their handling of the administration of LM Investment Management Ltd (LMIM), responsible entity for the LM First Mortgage Income Fund (FMIF). The remarks were made in proceedings which among other things saw BDO’s…


ANZ Receivers required to recall examinable affairs

Given this is largely about booze and what happened to it, recollections could be cloudy. Nevertheless, PwC’s David Merryweather and Greg Hall will need to summon all their prodigious powers of recall now that the Federal Court has empowered a special purpose liquidator (SPL) to delve into their conduct during August 2013, a time when ownership of the liquid assets of David James‘ teetering beverage empire was apparently unclear. This…