A decision which insolvency practitioners will welcome in, Cathro, in the matter of Cubic Interiors NSW Pty Ltd (In Liq) [2023] FCA 694, the Federal Court clarified that s588FL of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the Act) does not cover security interests granted by a security agreement made after the “critical time” as defined in s588FL(7) of the Act.

Co-author: Ben  Gibson, Barrister, Victorian Bar

Case Name:Bryant v Badenoch Integrated Logging Pty Ltd [2023] HCA 2

Issues: Voidable transactions and unfair preferences: abolition of the peak indebtedness rule, the existence of a continuing business relationship.

The abolition of the peak indebtedness rule will likely reduce the quantum of unfair preference claims where there is a running account and render some claims unviable for further pursuit.

Introduction for Insolvency & Restructuring Case Summaries 2021-2022 It gives us great pleasure to introduce our Insolvency & Restructuring Case Summaries 2021-2022.

This is the first year that we have published a collated version of the Case Summaries in addition to our regular insolvency InFocus updates. The Case Summaries have been produced in response to feedback that this would be a useful resource.

Further to our previous article, which can be found here, we consider the key issues with which the Court faced, the technical legal analysis underpinning this judgment and our view on what this may mean for energy suppliers, and the sector as a whole, looking forward.

Background - what was the application and why was it needed?

Once hailed as having the potential to add £5.7 billion to the UK economy in 2016, Northern business leaders operating in the tech space met to discuss how best to unlock the sector's growth potential. As part of CyberFest, Womble Bond Dickinson, alongside a host of tech experts and business leaders, aimed to tackle the issue head-on in an insightful roundtable.

The long, long awaited Supreme Court Judgment in the Sequana case is finally here. Firstly, for those who may have forgotten what the Supreme Court was grappling with, the issue was 'whether the trigger for the directors’ duty to consider creditors is merely a real risk of, as opposed to a probability of or close proximity to, insolvency'. 

In significant news for the insolvency industry, the High Court will hear the long-awaited Gunns Group preference claim appeal in Bryant & Ors v Badenoch Integrated Logging (A10/2022) on 18 October 2022.

Johnson Winter & Slattery act for PwC, the appellant liquidators of the Gunns group, in the proceeding.

Briefly stated, the grounds for the appeal are:

The Insolvency Service has reported the first disqualifications under new legislation introduced to tackle the practice of directors dissolving companies in order to evade debts.

In its recent judgment in Re Jabiru[1], the Supreme Court of New South Wales applied principles governing the appointment of Special Purpose Liquidators (SPL) in rejecting the Plaintiffs’ application for a SPL to be appointed to pursue claims against secured lenders.

In a recent Supreme Court of Victoria decision[1] in which we acted for the successful liquidators, the Court made various orders to enable the company to complete an ultra-efficient, streamlined second voluntary administration to expedite creditor consideration of a new DOCA proposal.

Key points