Golden Mile Property Investments Pty Ltd (in Liq) v Cudgegong Australia Pty Ltd

The appeal before the Court of Appeal of New South Wales concerned a dispute between Golden Mile Property Investments Pty Ltd (in Liq) (the applicant) and Cudgegong Australia Pty Ltd (the first respondent) regarding interests in land that had been resumed. The core of the dispute involved the effect of the applicant's deregistration and subsequent reinstatement under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), and the priority of competing equitable interests in the land.

The legal issues before the court included whether a mortgagee owes duties to a mortgagor company during the period of its deregistration, the nature of a purchaser's interest under an uncompleted contract for sale of land, and whether such an interest takes priority over a mortgagor's equity of redemption when the mortgagee has exercised its power of sale. The court was also required to consider whether the mortgagee had failed to take reasonable care to obtain market value for the land sold, pursuant to s 420A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), and whether the first respondent possessed an "interest" in the resumed land for the purposes of compensation under the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act 1991 (NSW).

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, setting aside the orders of the Land and Environment Court. The court reasoned that the applicant's deregistration did not extinguish its equitable interest in the land, and that the question of respective interests needed to be determined according to law. The matter was remitted to the Land and Environment Court for this purpose. The court also made orders regarding costs and imposed conditions on the applicant providing an undertaking concerning remedies against other parties if a breach of duty by the mortgagee in exercising the power of sale was established.