Gerblich v Adplan Pty Ltd

In *Gerblich v Adplan Pty Ltd*, the applicant, Mr Gerblich, sought a review of decisions made by the Registrar of the Supreme Court of South Australia. The Registrar had refused to accept for filing an originating process intended to wind up the defendant company in insolvency, and had also refused to remit the associated filing fee. The application for review was made pursuant to section 459P of the *Corporations Act 2001* (Cth) and rule 21 of the *Supreme Court Civil Rules 2006* (SA).

The central legal issues before the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia were whether the originating process should be deemed to have been filed on the day it was presented at the Registry in an acceptable form, accompanied by a meritorious request for fee remission, or on the later date when the fee remission was ordered. This determination was critical to establishing whether Mr Gerblich's application to wind up the company was made within the time limits necessary to engage the presumed insolvency provisions of the *Corporations Act*. The Court also considered whether the applicant was entitled to an extension of time for his application for review and whether the defendant company had a right to be heard regarding the application for review and fee remission.

The Court reasoned that the applicant's request for fee remission was meritorious, and that the failure of the originating process to be accepted for filing immediately upon presentation was not due to any fault of the applicant. Consequently, the Court held that the originating process should be taken to have been filed on the day it was presented at the Registry, 12 July 2011. The Court also granted an extension of time for the filing of the application for review and allowed an amendment to the application to seek a declaration to this effect.

The Court made orders extending the time for filing the application for review to 13 February 2012, granting permission to amend the application, reversing the Registrar's order refusing to remit the filing fee, and declaring that the originating process was to be taken for all purposes as having been filed on 12 July 2011.