Judge confirms appointments of Gordon and Hird

Gordon and Hird get best outcome possible from Wily resignation imbroglio.Appointments validated: liquidators Gus Gordon and Michael Hird leaving the Supreme Court on monday with their appointments validated.
Andrew Wily: replaced by Macquarie Gordon

Andrew Wily: has launched an application seeking to confirm his decision to utilise section 499(5).

Liquidators Angus Gordon and Michael Hird waltzed from the NSW Supreme Court on Monday with a spring in their collective step, the latter unimpeded by an impressive shiner around his right eye.

The buoyancy being exhibited by the Macquarie Gordon pair followed declarations made moments earlier by Justice Paul Brereton, who effectively confirmed they had been validly appointed as joint & several liquidators to approximately 20 companies formerly controlled by Andrew Hugh Jenner Wily, who had resigned en masse ahead of the expiration of his liquidator’s registration on April 24.

The pair had consented to act and attended at a series of meetings held between April 17 and 19. But on the final day ASIC advised that it was not satisfied the meetings, called by Wily under Section 499(5) of the Corporations Acts, had been properly convened.

Questions arose. Was Wily’s resignation valid? If not, what did that make of the replacements’ appointments?

During a break in the Traill & Associates practical insolvency conference yesterday SiN was told by interested observers there was no problem with Wily convening under section 499(5) and the regulator had it wrong.

Ultimately a judge will decide as Wily has filed an originating process seeking to have the question resolved once and for all. Why does he care? So he can confirm his right to remuneration voted on at some of the meetings.

Interestingly, certain of SiN’s sources – temporarily domiciled in Fiji – implied that ASIC’s concerns were related not to the manner in which the meetings had been convened but were focussed around determining if some remuneration was paid without creditor approval.

All the meetings took place the week prior to the expiry of Wily’s liquidator’s registration and most assuredly, Wily took advice. SiN contacted the man himself for comment but no response was received prior to this publication’s deadline.

Wily has however made an application in the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that he was correct to utilise section 499(5) to facilitate his resignation, to appoint replacements and, in certain cases, obtain creditor approval for his remuneration. The matter returns to court on May 15.

In the meantime, Justice Brereton on Monday had no problem ruling that Wily be removed as liquidator from the bulk of the companies listed in the schedule and that Gordon and Hird replace him. And that shiner Hird was sporting? It was apparently caused by that most ubiquitous of all of the culprits generally invoked to explain such a wound. The kitchen cupboard.

Further reading:

ASIC Intervenes On Wily Resignations

About the Author

Peter Gosnell
Insolvency News Online illuminates the practice of insolvency Australia-wide, highlighting the triumphs and travails of the nation’s registered practitioners and the accounting and legal professionals who work with them. INO is produced by Peter Gosnell, former business editor and senior business reporter at The Daily Telegraph newspaper. During a decade-long career, your correspondent reported on such notable corporate collapses as HIH, One.Tel, Westpoint and Fincorp as well as some of the nation's highest profile bankruptcies and the investigations and prosecutions arising from Australia's most notorious instances of white-collar crime.

1 Comment on "Judge confirms appointments of Gordon and Hird"

  1. Brian Dunphy | 3 May 2017 at 4:05 pm | Reply

    Wish I could claim to be the one that gave Hird the black eye

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*