Aklia Holdings Pty Ltd v The Carter Group Pty Ltd (in liq)

Aklia Holdings Pty Ltd was the plaintiff in a proceeding against The Carter Group Pty Ltd, which was in liquidation, in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The plaintiff sought damages for conversion of shares and units, loss of a valuable chance, and other related claims. The defendants sought summary judgment on various parts of the plaintiff's statement of claim and counterclaim, arguing that certain claims were not maintainable and factually unsustainable.

The court was required to determine whether the plaintiff had a real prospect of succeeding on its claim for conversion of intangible rights, the validity of the claim for loss of a valuable chance, the applicability of trade or commerce to internal company conduct, and whether the defendants had a real prospect of succeeding on their counterclaim for damages. The court needed to assess the strength of the claims and counterclaims to decide whether they should proceed to trial or be dismissed as having no real prospect of success.

The court found that certain parts of the plaintiff's statement of claim were unsustainable and had no real prospect of success. Specifically, the claims for conversion of intangible rights and loss of a valuable chance were struck out with leave to re-plead. The court also found that the defendants' counterclaim regarding internal company conduct was not maintainable as it could not be considered "in trade or commerce." Furthermore, the claim for damages by the defendants was struck out as it could only be brought by the company under the Prudential principle.

The orders of the court were that specific paragraphs of the plaintiff's statement of claim and the defendants' counterclaim were struck out with leave to re-plead, and the applications for summary judgment were dismissed otherwise. The remaining parts of the claims and counterclaims were to proceed to trial.