Offerman’s Michael Brennan. Offerman’s Dennis Offerman. What’s the world come to when trustees have to provide explicit and detailed reasons for refusing a bankrupt’s request for documents? If trustees say complying with such a request could prejudice the interests of creditors and third parties and is unreasonable to boot then courts should bloody well accept them at their word. They’re officers of the court are…
SV Partners’ Fabian Micheletto. SV Partners’ Michael Carrafa. Contests about whether privilege has been waived are what life’s all about. Who doesn’t relish a hot war over confidential correspondence that may hold the potential to cause discomfort to those fighting for the right to stay shtum. “Even if the defendants’ submission is accepted as a correct characterisation of the facts, the submission falls well short…
Wexted Advisors founder and principal Joe Hayes. Wexted Advisors partner Andrew McCabe. Reaping almost $130 million from the sale of public houses looks like an exceptional result for a pair of Sydney receivers but a decision to affirm a director’s unit trust holding could see distribution of the profits disrupted by a Special Purpose Liquidator (SPL). Since December 2021 when they were appointed receiver managers…
Hall Chadwick partner John Vouris. Hall Chadwick partner Kathleen Vouris. The ephemeral nature of a corporate trustee’s right of indemnity continues to bedevil those charged with the winding up of a trustee company’s affairs. Trust deeds allow for the appointment of new trustees whenever an incumbent is insolvent or anticipated to shortly become so. Those wielding the power to appoint a replacement rarely decline to…
PwC’s Andrew Scott. When rival parties propose their own trustees to sell property and there’s not even daylight between the contenders, how’s a judge to decide? The answer lies within Yat Kit Jong and Man Chun So – the Trustees of the Property of Ho Wah Au, a Bankrupt v Chow [2022] NSWSC 1595 which reveals that all things being equal, the plaintiff’s nominee generally…
CRS Warner principal Anthony Warner Being bankrolled by a creditor that’s in the construction game might qualify as the riskiest indemnity going for an external administrator litigating during our current economic tumult. When it comes to racking up insolvencies, building and construction muscles all other sectors aside in the race to the podium. That though is of no concern to the judicial eminences sitting on…
PCI Partners director Philip Newman. Was it a Ponzi scheme? Or were the monies invested in the The Edge, the now notorious betting scam operated by incarcerated racing identity Bill Vlahos, held on trust? That is one of the key questions at the heart of a dispute playing out in the Federal Court between Vlahos’s trustee in bankruptcy and at least some of the scores…
John Sheahan of Sheahan and Lock. SV Partners’ Victoria executive director Michael Carrafa. It’s a bankruptcy capable of generating gigawatts of positive publicity for an enterprising trustee. The bankrupt’s a convicted sex offender. The majority creditor is the offender’s victim. A court’s awarded that victim $5.3 million in damages and the bankrupt’s a retired pathology practice manager known for his support of the arts. Anyone…
Smith Hancock’sPeter Hillig. Smith Hancock’s Mike Smith. Receivers wondering about the best course to take in dealing with a surplus might, depending on their circumstances, take note of the recent experience of Smith Hancock’s Peter Hillig and Mike Smith. The pair were appointed receivers and managers of the J & Lee Property Group Trust by court order in August 2017, some seven months after the…
PwC’s Andrew Scott. O’Brien Palmer’s Liam Bailey. One has to wonder if Sydney lawyers Steve Polczynski and Dajana Malnersic have something against registered liquidator and trustee in bankruptcy Liam Bailey? The latter is an experienced practitioner, well founded in the skills necessary to act on either corporate or personal insolvency appointments. ” … on the applicant’s case, there is a surfeit of Trustees in relation…