In the matter of Gemaveld Pty Limited

Gemaveld Pty Limited applied to the Federal Circuit Court to set aside a statutory demand that had been served upon it. The statutory demand was issued by another party, and it sought payment of a debt owed by Gemaveld. The application to set aside the statutory demand was made under section 459J of the Corporations Act 2001. The legal issues before the court were whether the verifying affidavit was sworn prior to the statutory demand and whether the affidavit being sworn prior to, but on the same day as, the signature of the statutory demand would give rise to some other reason why the statutory demand should be set aside.

The court considered the relevant provisions of the Corporations Act 2001 and found that a verifying affidavit must be sworn prior to the statutory demand. However, the court also found that the fact that the affidavit was sworn on the same day as the signature of the statutory demand did not necessarily mean that the statutory demand should be set aside. The court held that the affidavit must be sworn prior to the statutory demand in order to be valid, but that there may be other reasons why the statutory demand should be set aside even if the affidavit was sworn on the same day as the signature of the statutory demand.

The court found that there were no other reasons why the statutory demand should be set aside in this case. The verifying affidavit was not sworn prior to the statutory demand, and there were no other grounds for setting aside the statutory demand. The application to set aside the statutory demand was therefore dismissed.

The court ordered that Gemaveld Pty Limited pay the costs of the application.