New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Bankruptcy notice

Legal area

Court

18 Dec 2023

BAKER v LIBEAU [2023] NZHC 2426

Citation

[2023] NZHC 2426
Court

High Court

Dismissal: the claimed cross-claim lacked mutuality because the alleged loss (royalties) belonged to LincSpun Ltd not Libeau personally; Libeau produced no cogent evidence of personal loss; the counterclaim was stayed and not triable and Libeau had not taken steps to lift the stay or shown intention to pursue it; Libeau had the legal opportunity to use the claim as a defence and had raised it in the original proceeding, so s17(7)(a) and (b) are not satisfied.
18 Dec 2023

NUTTALL PROPERTIES LIMITED v CORCORAN [2023] NZHC 3763

Citation

[2023] NZHC 3763
Court

High Court

The court (implicitly granting the leave required under s 17(3) if the debtor is in Australia) found the debt was connected to New Zealand, that reasonable attempts at personal service had been made and personal service could be dispensed with; substituted service was ordered by emailing the bankruptcy notice to the debtor's email and personally serving the debtor's son, with documents deemed served three working days after both steps were completed, and costs were fixed on a 2B basis to be costs in the cause.
13 Dec 2023

KIM v MAO [2023] NZHC 3671

Citation

[2023] NZHC 3671
Court

High Court

The creditors satisfied the jurisdictional requirements under ss13 and 36; the debtor failed to discharge the onus to show it is just and equitable to refuse adjudication; exercising the court's discretion under s38 the application is halted on terms that the debtor pay $96,432.74 by 5pm 20 December 2023, failing which the halt is lifted and an adjudication order will be made.
12 Dec 2023

SENIOR TRUST CAPITAL LIMITED v HANNON [2023] NZHC 3628

Citation

[2023] NZHC 3628
Court

High Court

The applications were dismissed because, although the failure to file a defence was acceptably explained, Catherine did not demonstrate a reasonably arguable defence sufficient to show a miscarriage of justice: the estoppel and implied term arguments as to repayment from R1 were not tenable in the commercial context and were undermined by the contemporaneous facts and parties' positions; the duress defence was abandoned and contrary to contemporaneous evidence and affirmation; no arguable breach of s176 was established; accordingly the default judgment and the bankruptcy notice were properly…
8 Dec 2023

NEW ZEALAND BLOODSTOCK FINANCE & LEASING LIMITED v GREGORY JOHN JONES [2023] NZHC 3542

Citation

[2023] NZHC 3542
Court

High Court

The interlocutory application is dismissed: the Court will not re-open or re-litigate final determinations of the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court absent special circumstances (fraud/collusion/miscarriage of justice) which are not established here; the creditor has a reasonably arguable entitlement to adjudication under the Insolvency Act 2006 and the debtor's cross-claims and evidence applications are res judicata or inadmissible, so the summons/evidence application is refused and adjudication may proceed if debt unpaid by the specified date.
20 Nov 2023

LOAN INVESTMENT TRUSTEES LTD v DING [2023] NZHC 3288

Citation

[2023] NZHC 3288
Court

High Court

Application dismissed because the debtor did not establish a genuine, triable cross-claim equal to or greater than the judgment debt; his asserted intention to raise funds or obtain refunds in future does not satisfy the statutory requirements to set aside a bankruptcy notice under the Insolvency Act and relevant authorities.
26 Sept 2023

MILLS v FENG [2023] NZHC 2674

Citation

[2023] NZHC 2674
Court

High Court

The court struck out Feng's claims against the Mills Trust as not reasonably arguable because the claims were irrelevant to liability under the signed sale and purchase agreement, raised matters that could and should have been advanced in the summary judgment proceeding, did not establish a duty of care or a Fair Trading Act cause against a non‑trading vendor, and therefore did not constitute a genuine triable cross‑claim; accordingly the application to set aside the bankruptcy notice was dismissed.
15 Sept 2023

HU v LIU [2023] NZHC 2588

Citation

[2023] NZHC 2588
Court

High Court

The 6 May 2023 assignment to Lau was absolute and transferred Hu's enforceable interest so Hu was not the person entitled to enforce the judgment when the bankruptcy notice was issued; r 4.56 was not the appropriate mechanism to cure that defect and adding Lau retrospectively would not validate the defective bankruptcy notice, therefore Hu's application to add Lau was dismissed and the bankruptcy notice was effectively invalid.
1 Sept 2023

WU & Ors v XING [2023] NZHC 2409

Citation

[2023] NZHC 2409
Court

High Court

The applications to set aside the bankruptcy notices were dismissed because Mr Zhong failed to establish a genuine triable cross-claim in liability and quantum equal to or exceeding the judgment debts; his asserted entitlement to settlement proceeds was incorrect (funds payable to Green Land and held in trust), many asserted claims re-litigated issues already determined, and pending appeals or stay applications do not constitute cross-claims under s17.
24 Jul 2023

LAWTON v SEWELL [2023] NZHC 1939

Citation

[2023] NZHC 1939
Court

High Court

Application dismissed because applicant failed to establish a genuine and triable cross-claim approaching or equalling the judgment debt; alleged tort claims were speculative, of limited and uncertain quantum, and the appeal was not sufficiently progressed to justify setting aside the bankruptcy notice.