Hankin and Anor and Nankervis

In the matter of *Hankin and Anor and Nankervis*, Judge A Kelly of the Federal Court of Australia considered an application by the trustees of the bankrupt estate of Ms Hankin. The dispute concerned the approval of a compromise deed and the distribution of funds held in a solicitors' trust account. The proceedings involved Ms Hankin, her trustees, and Mr Nankervis, the trustee of the bankrupt estate of Mr Hankin.

The court was required to determine whether to grant the trustees of Ms Hankin's bankrupt estate leave to file applications retrospectively, join them as second applicants to the proceedings, and amend the title of the proceeding accordingly. Crucially, the court had to decide whether to approve a compromise deed entered into on 15 June 2018 and, consequential to that approval, how funds held in the trust account of McLean & Associates, solicitors, should be distributed between the parties.

Judge Kelly applied the provisions of section 58(3)(b) of the *Bankruptcy Act 1966* (Cth) to grant the trustees leave to file their applications *nunc pro tunc*. The court approved the compromise embodied in the deed of agreement, ordering that Mr Nankervis, as trustee of Mr Hankin's bankrupt estate, pay $110,000.00 to the trustees of Ms Hankin's bankrupt estate from the specified trust account within seven days. Mr Nankervis was permitted to retain $329,143.37 from the same trust account. The trustees of Ms Hankin's estate were ordered to pay $3,000.00 to Ms Hankin within fourteen days. The initiating application filed on 29 June 2017 and subsequent applications were otherwise dismissed, with no order as to costs.