This week’s TGIF considers the case ofIn the matter of Bean and Sprout Pty Ltd [2018] NSWSC 351, an application seeking a declaration as to the validity of the appointment of a voluntary administrator.

What happened?

On 7 December 2018, Mr Kong Yao Chin (Chin) was purportedly appointed as the voluntary administrator of Bean and Sprout Pty Ltd (Company) by a resolution of the Company.

This week’s TGIF is the second of a two-part series considering Commonwealth v Byrnes [2018] VSCA 41, the Victorian Court of Appeal’s decision on appeal from last year’s Re Amerind decision about the insolvency of corporate trustees.

In June 2017, the New South Wales Parliament introduced the Civil Liability (Third Party Claims Against Insurers) Act 2017 (NSW Act), designed to clarify the rights of claimants to proceed directly against insurance companies. But in the context of insolvent corporations, has it created more problems than it has solved?

When the board of Hanjin Shipping voted unanimously to file for receivership at the end of August, it precipitated the largest container line bankruptcy in history. The collapse of the company is partly due to the pressure on the shipping industry, which has been unrelenting since the 2008 financial crash. Much of this has to do with the increase in capacity in the industry – vessels built in the 1990s typically carried around 2,000 TEUs; by 2015 this had increased to 10,000.