Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited v Jaeger (No.2)

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited (the creditor) presented a creditor's petition against Mr. Jaeger. The dispute before the Federal Circuit Court of Australia concerned the status of this petition after an order was made adjourning it to a directions hearing. The core of the issue was whether the creditor had inadvertently failed to seek an order under section 52(5) of the *Bankruptcy Act 1966* (Cth) on the day the adjournment order was made, and whether such an order would have been granted had it been sought.

The court was required to determine whether the creditor's petition had lapsed due to the passage of time, given that no order extending the petition's validity had been made under section 52(5) of the *Bankruptcy Act 1966* (Cth). This section provides for the extension of the period within which a creditor's petition lapses. The court also had to consider whether it possessed the power to amend its previous order to include a retrospective extension under section 52(5), effectively preventing the petition from lapsing.

Judge Manousaridis applied the principles of the slip rule, which allows courts to correct clerical mistakes or errors arising from an accidental omission in an order. The judge found that the failure to apply for an order under section 52(5) on 18 April 2019 was an inadvertent omission. The court reasoned that had the application been made, it would have been granted, as the circumstances warranted an extension of the petition's validity. Consequently, the court ordered that the previous order of 18 April 2019 be varied to include an order pursuant to section 52(5) of the *Bankruptcy Act 1966* (Cth), extending the period of the creditor's petition's validity to 24 months from its presentation on 6 June 2018.