In light of the radically and rapidly changing face of bricks and mortar retail, cases providing guidance on the way in which liabilities are to be dealt with in the course of the restructuring / insolvency process are extremely valuable not only for stakeholders and practitioners dealing with the consequences of those processes but also to those guiding and devising the strategies in the first instance.

Wright and Rowley v Prudential Assurance Company Limited is one such case arising out of the collapse of the British Home Stores (‘BHS’) retailing group in 2016.

Key Summary

The Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia has held that the Commissioner of Taxation’s (Commissioner) formal information gathering powers override the obligation imposed on a party to litigation not to use information or documents disclosed by another party for any other purpose outside the proceedings in which they were disclosed (commonly known as the ‘Harman obligation’1).

JWS has achieved an excellent result for the liquidators of the Gunns Group, with success in the Federal Court’s judgment in Bryant (Liquidator) v L.V. Dohnt & Co Pty Ltd, In the Matter of Gunns Limited (In Liq.) (Receivers and Managers Appointed) [2018] FCA 238.

JWS has achieved a significant win on behalf of Linc’s liquidators, PPB Advisory, in their proceedings against the Queensland State Government in relation to Linc’s environmental liabilities. The Queensland Court of Appeal has unanimously overturned the Supreme Court judgment of Jackson J, which was the subject of an appeal hearing in September 2017 at which Bret Walker SC appeared for the liquidators.  

Justice Robson’s decision in Re Amerind1 was one of a number of recent authorities which created doubt as to how the statutory insolvency regime, and in particular how the priority waterfall, should be applied to recoveries from trust assets.

JWS successfully protected the rights of the class action creditors to have their claims in the voluntary administration of SurfStitch Group Limited (SGL) valued appropriately, for the purposes of voting at the second meeting of creditors of SGL. Joseph Scarcella of JWS acts for Nakali Pty Limited (Nakali), the lead plaintiff in the first class action proceeding instituted against SGL.

In Re Atwell & Co Pty Ltd (in liq) [2017] VSC 683, Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court of Victoria considered the application of the ‘proportionality’ principle in determining liquidator remuneration.

This article was first published for Thomson Reuters' Practical Law Dispute Resolution Blog.

Making sense of the purchase money security interest (PMSI) priority provisions in the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA) can be challenging for financiers and insolvency practitioners tasked with assessing the merits of competing security interest claims.

The recent judgment of the Western Australian Court of Appeal in Hughes v Pluton Resources Ltd 1, concerns the interaction between a deed of company arrangement (‘DOCA’) under Part 5.3A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (‘CA’) and the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (‘PPSA’).