The Virgin Australia administration continues to boost billables at the top end of town, with a short list of “well-funded” buyers revealed on Monday and an intense four weeks ahead as the bidders and their law firms scramble to make binding offers by the mid-June deadline.
The administrators of Virgin Australia have been absolved of personal liability for the ongoing operation of the embattled airline on an unprecedented scale, with Australia’s airline duopoly and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic justifying the “extraordinarily wide” orders.
An Ashurst partner is at risk of being evicted from his Point Piper home after allegedly refusing to pay a $150,000 special levy.
The COVID-19 pandemic and government social distancing restrictions were reasons to be flexible in applying and adapting the law, the judge overseeing the administration of Virgin Australia has said in exempting administrators from liability for unpaid leases and allowing Thursday’s meeting of the airlines’ creditors to be held by teleconference.
The funder behind the Banksia Securities class action has failed in a bid to have an outstanding case over legal fees and its commission sent to mediation, with a judge saying the issues for trial involve allegations against lawyers of serious misconduct not appropriate for closed-door negotiations.
The liquidators of defunct stockbroker Halifax are justified in their decision to refrain from realising existing investments over the protests of some investors, until substantive issues in the liquidation are resolved, a court has directed.
The administrators of Virgin Australia will not have to pay the troubled carrier’s aircraft and other lease payments, after a court granted them a temporary exemption from liability.
Voluntary administration was the only option for Virgin, and the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the airline’s decline could present a unique opportunity for the administrators to push the boundaries of corporations law, according to insolvency experts.
The High Court will not hear a challenge to a ruling that found two companies previously run by Joseph “Diamond Joe” Gutnik and his family were insolvent.
A court has upheld two decisions by the Australian Government Takeovers Panel that a bid by asset manager Aurora Funds Management to replace Molopo Energy’s directors was made in “unacceptable circumstances”.