Doolan v Dare

In Doolan v Dare, the respondent, a registered trustee, appealed against a decision by the President of the Bankruptcy Division of the Federal Court. The dispute centred around the remuneration of the trustee in the context of bankruptcy proceedings, specifically in relation to the provisions of s 64U of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth). The legal issue before the court was whether the new subsection 5A, inserted by the Bankruptcy Legislation Amendment Act 2002, applied to meetings held before the effective date of the amendment, 18 December 2002.

The court considered the language of the Amending Act and whether it demonstrated an intention to apply retrospectively. The court noted that the new subsection 5A was not retrospective in nature and was intended to apply only to meetings held after the 18 December 2002. The court found that the statutory language did not indicate any intention to make the amendment retrospective, and therefore, the new requirements did not apply to meetings held before that date.

Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed. The court ordered that within seven days, the parties were to file submissions on the costs of the appeal, otherwise there would be no order as to costs.