Nick Combis’s 15 years of torment as receiver of the White Rook and White Horizon trustee partnership has finally come to an end and after all of the unexplained delays and unnecessary litigation he’s managed to walk away with the bulk of his remuneration intact.
“it is difficult to escape the conclusion that spending over a decade to recover a sum within the jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court is neither reasonable nor proportionate.” Supreme Court of Queensland judge Rebecca Treston.
Late last month Supreme Court of Queensland judge Rebecca Treston delivered her reasons in respect of a remuneration approval application the Vincents partner brought following his partial success in defending proceedings brought to disentitle him from receiving any remuneration in future as well as orders requiring Combis to disgorge whatever remuneration he’d already received.
Those proceedings – brought by White Horizon director Daryll Kelly – came after Combis discontinued a long running recovery proceeding he realised he had no standing to bring.
In the subsequent remuneration and expenses approval bid brought by Combis, Kelly argued that Combis hadn’t put adequate material before the court to justify the amount claimed and the amounts were disproportionate.
As explained in White Rook Pty Ltd v White Horizon Pty Ltd (No 2) [2026] QSC 86 the judge disagreed with the first contention and partly agreed with the second.
“While I am satisfied that adequate evidence has been led as to allow me to identify the purpose for the work which was undertaken, I am less convinced that the evidence establishes that all the work was reasonable,” she said.
Referring to partnership equity balances from June 2012 to June 2018 prepared for Kelly by Mills Oakley’s Teora Bombek her honour said: ” … it is difficult to escape the conclusion that spending over a decade to recover a sum within the jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court is neither reasonable nor proportionate”.
“It is therefore difficult for me to conclude that the receiver ought to be entitled to recover his remuneration, costs and outlays in full on the basis that not all those costs were reasonably incurred,” she said.
The judge went on to consider Combis’s decision not to seek court approval for his remuneration earlier, while acknowledging Combis could not have been expected to anticipate the Kelly would resist recovery attempts for 15 years.
“Despite knowing that Mr Kelly was so difficult to deal with, and the receivership was dragging on, the receiver never sought to bring an application for his remuneration to be fixed.
“The original order of Mullins J of June 2011 permitted such an application, and as I have already observed in the 2025 Reasons, the court has a ‘clear general jurisdiction to give its opinion, advice or direction to a receiver it has appointed’.
“Had such an application been brought after the assets had been realised in 2012, or any time thereafter, it is likely that a realistic assessment of the receivership’s financial position, including the burden of remuneration, costs and outlays, would have been exposed, at which point, the wisdom of the continuation of the receivership would have open to scrutiny.
“Such an application would have been prudent; a receiver who incurs ‘extraordinary expenses’ without the approbation of the court will not generally receive sanction for them without the estate having been benefited.
“Further, excessive delay in the advancement of the remuneration application was itself productive of inefficiency, which resulted in unreasonably high costs.
For example, that an application was considered by MinterEllison to fix remuneration in 2012, and not embarked on until 2025, was itself indicative of wasted time and costs,” the judge said.
Taking it all into account her honour ordered that Combis be entitled to $204,633.91, 15 per cent less than he sought and that SV Partners’ Terry Rose be appointed as receiver in his place, an order Combis understandably did not oppose.
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