Restructuring & Insolvency

A law firm has prevailed in a fight over unpaid legal fees, with an appeals court ruling the firm is entitled to priority over certain funds recovered in a receivership of a South Stradbroke resort because of its equitable lien over costs orders it secured for its client.

Publican Julian Gerner has “significantly” amended his claims in a dispute over the redevelopment of the Continental Hotel Sorrento, a court has heard.

Liquidators appointed by the court to five companies behind $130 million worth of construction projects in Brisbane have won more time to bring potential claims while they investigate several matters, including an allegedly “very odd” tax situation.

The Liberty Bell Bay smelter in Tasmania will be shuttered after the consortium proposing to acquire the struggling manganese alloy producer withdrew its interest.

Investors in Falcon Capital's First Guardian Master Fund will recover less than 10 per cent of a $33.5 million loan advanced to an inexperienced Melbourne developer, under a settlement reached by the company's liquidators.

A judge has restrained the receivers of Kimberley Pearl Tours from selling the key assets of the business, finding that the WA tourism company has a reasonably arguable case that they were appointed in bad faith to exert pressure on the company. 

Former Keystone Asset Management director and developer Paul Chiodo will have to produce bank records for himself and family members, after a judge shot down his appeal of a ruling ordering production. 

A judge has frozen a DOCA for failed mining company Mine & Rail's Australian business, the latest chapter in a dispute with US investor Tacora Capital, which has sued in the US alleging the company concealed its deteriorating financial position while securing more than US$30 million in funding.

A former director of defunct developer Maxcon Developments and his family members have lost a bid to set aside examination orders, with a judge rejecting their argument that the ATO was using the examinations as a “dry run” for other claims.

Cor Cordis has lost its bid to strike out claims by the former chair of the insolvency firm that it "confected" reductions in work in progress to avoid paying his full retirement entitlements.