Fletcher v Landgridge

[2002] FMCA 139

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

FLETCHER & ANOR v LANDGRIDGE & ORS [2002] FMCA 139

BANKRUPTCY – Antecedent transactions – family trust operating business – bill of sale granted over business assets – whether full consideration given for the bill of sale – whether granting of the bill of sale was a transaction to defeat creditors.

Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth), ss.116,120, 121

Octavo Investments Pty Ltd v Knight (1979) 144 CLR 360
Pridmore v Magenta Nominees Pty Ltd [1999] FCA 152
Re McLernon; ex parte SWF Hoists and Industrial Equipment Pty Ltd v Prebble (1995) 130 ALR 609
Sutherland v Brien (1999) 149 FLR 321
Vacuum Oil Co Pty Ltd v Wiltshire (1945) 72 CLR 319

First Applicant:

Second Applicant:

WILLIAM JOHN FLETCHER

NEVILLE JOHN POCOCK
as trustees for the bankrupt estate of
Leslie William Ingram

First Respondent:

Second Respondent:
Third Respondent:
Fourth Respondent:

ANTHONY JOHN LANDGRIDGE

VERA EVELYN LANDGRIDGE
RAYMOND HENRY POWER
ALAN RAYMOND POWER
trading as “Pacific Factors”

File No: BZ168 of 2001

Delivered on: 26 July 2002

Delivered at: Sydney, via telephone to Brisbane

Hearing Date: 8 July 2002

Judgment of: Driver FM

REPRESENTATION

Counsel for the Applicants: Mr van der Walt

Solicitors for the Applicants: Forbes Dowling Lawyers

Counsel for the Respondents: Mr Colson

Solicitors for the Respondent: Baker Johnson Lawyers

ORDERS

1. The application is dismissed.

2. There is no order as to costs.

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES
COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT
BRISBANE

BZ168 of 2001

WILLIAM JOHN FLETCHER

First Applicant

NEVILLE JOHN POCOCK

Second Applicant

as trustees for the bankrupt estate of Leslie William Ingram

And

ANTHONY JOHN LANDGRIDGE

First Respondent

VERA EVELYN LANDGRIDGE

Second Respondent

RAYMOND HENRY POWER

Third Respondent

ALAN RAYMOND POWER

Fourth Respondent

trading as “Pacific Factors”

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

Introduction

1. The applicants are the trustees of the bankrupt estate of Leslie William Ingram. The respondents are partners in the business “Pacific Factors” which is a debt factoring business. The application is brought pursuant to ss. 120 and 121 of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth) (“the Bankruptcy Act”). The purpose of the application is to declare void as against the applicants a transfer of property under a bill of sale granted on 3 April 1998 by the bankrupt and his partner Lorraine Sandra Pearce-Ingram and to obtain an order for payment of $19,626.53 to the applicants. The application also seeks interest and costs.

2. The basic facts in these proceedings are not in dispute.  The dispute between the parties centres on the legal consequences of the granting of the bill of sale and whether, in particular, the consequence of the granting of that bill of sale is that the respondents became secured creditors in respect of the assets of the business conducted by the bankrupt and his partner through a family trust, in priority to other creditors.

Background

1. The respondents conducted the business known as “Pacific Factors” which specialised in the factoring of debts in the motor vehicle repair industry.  The bankrupt and his partner were engaged in the motor vehicle repair business. 

2. In around…