Chamberlain v Registrar-General of NSW

Chamberlain v Registrar-General of NSW involved the plaintiff, a company, seeking compensation from the Torrens Assurance Fund after its property was transferred to a director of the company and his wife in 1997. The transfer was part of a fraud perpetrated by the director. The director later transferred his interest to his wife, who became the sole registered proprietor of the property. The company initiated statutory derivative proceedings in 2008 to recover the land. At first instance, the court held that the wife's title was indefeasible but ordered equitable compensation against the director. On appeal, the company successfully obtained an order that the wife held the property on trust for it. In 2015, the High Court ruled that the wife's initial title was indefeasible but that she held a one-half interest on trust for the company. The company subsequently filed a claim for compensation from the Assurance Fund in 2017, which the Registrar-General rejected on the basis that it was made outside the stipulated time. The central legal issues were whether the claim for compensation was brought outside the time limit stipulated in section 131(2) of the Real Property Act 1900 (NSW), whether the "compensable loss" under section 129 of the Real Property Act arose more than six years before the claim was made in 2017, and whether the cause of action was barred by section 14(1)(d) of the Limitation Act 1969 (NSW). The court found that the "compensable loss" had been suffered by 15 September 2000, and that the six-year limitation period commenced to run on that date. It held that the limitation period was not suspended under section 52 of the Limitation Act as the disability provisions applied only to natural persons, and that in any event, the company was not substantially impeded by any relevant impairment or restraint. Consequently, the limitation period would have expired in March 2012, and as no action was brought before the expiry of the limitation period, the cause of action was extinguished. The proceedings were dismissed.