The NSW Court of Appeal has allowed Garuda Indonesia to invoke sovereign immunity to foil an insolvency proceeding brought by aircraft lessor Greylag Goose Leasing.

The Court’s decision is Greylag Goose Leasing 1410 Designated Activity Company v P.T. Garuda Indonesia Ltd [2023] NSWCA 134 (14 June 2023) (Bell CJ, Meagher JA and Kirk JA agreeing).

The COVID-19 Pandemic hit the travel industry hard. Borders were closed, airline fleets were grounded, travel bookings were cancelled, and travel agents were overwhelmed with customers wanting refunds.

Many travel agents closed their doors because travel bookings dried up.

STA Travel was one. Across 27 stores in Australia, STA Travel operated as a travel agent, booking travel for customers as agent for travel providers, mainly airlines and tour operators.

In the 1500s, debtors in England would avoid paying their debts by transferring property to friends or family as a gift or for undervalue, move to a sanctuary such as church land, wait for their creditors to exhaust their efforts or come to a favourable settlement of the debt, and then return and take a re-transfer of the property. This was a fraud on the creditors.

To prevent this mischief, in 1571, Parliament enacted the Fraudulent Conveyances Act (13 Eliz I, c 5), known as the Statute of 13 Elizabeth, and in Australia, as the Elizabethan Statute. It provided:

Ruby Apartments held the management rights to 242 serviced apartments in Ruby One Tower, Surfers Paradise, when Receivers were appointed on 1 August 2019.The Receivers were appointed by a secured creditor one day after Ruby Apartments had appointed an administrator. Ruby Apartments was part of the Ralan Group.

The Receivers carried on the business of apartment manager until 30 September 2019, when they sold the business as a going concern to a third party purchaser.

The Federal Court of Australia has ordered two company directors to personally compensate customers, pay a large fine and be disqualified from managing a corporation for being ‘knowingly concerned’ in unconscionable conduct by their company and ‘causing it’ to make false or misleading representations, in contravention of the Australian Consumer Law.

The orders made by the Federal Court of Australia against the company directors of Australian 4WD Hire, a vehicle rental company, were:

It’s tempting for a company director to not respond to a liquidator’s request to produce financial records if they contain incriminating material, but is it wise?  

ASIC’s record with land banking schemes has been the story of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. It has wound up insolvent schemes long after the investor’s cash has well and truly dissipated.

For example:

2006 was a boom year for Great Southern Plantations: it raised $1.141 billion from selling cattle droves, olive groves and woodlots to 25,800 investors in its Managed Investment Schemes (MIS) (source: Australian Agribusiness reports).

Mrs Govindasamy was one of these investors. She purchased 10 droves in the 2006 Beef Cattle MIS (cost: $50,000), 7 Grovelots in the 2006 Organic Olives MIS (cost: $56,000) and 33 Woodlots in the 2006 Plantations MIS (cost: $99,000).

Can the Trustee in Bankruptcy claim an interest in the family home because the bankrupt is living there, even if the bankrupt is not registered on the title as an owner?

The short answer is yes: if the Trustee can prove a common intention constructive trust.