Lewis v Lamru Pty Ltd; In the matter of Lewis

In the case of Lewis v Lamru Pty Ltd; In the matter of Lewis, the debtor sought to have a bankruptcy notice set aside on the basis that the judgment upon which the notice was founded was misdescribed and that the amount claimed was overstated due to a misunderstanding of the basis for calculating interest on the principal amounts ordered by the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The debtor argued that the orders attached to the bankruptcy notice did not satisfy the requirements of the Bankruptcy Act as they included a statement that orders had been made or given on 23 July 2010, when in fact the orders embodied in the attachment were not made or given on that day.

The court was required to decide whether the bankruptcy notice should be set aside due to the misdescription of the judgment and the overstatement of the amount claimed. The court considered the arguments put forward by the debtor and examined the sealed orders made and entered by the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The court noted that the arithmetic embodied in the interest calculations correctly reflected the relevant requirements of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules and the terms of the orders for the relevant periods.

The court found that the orders attached to the bankruptcy notice accurately reflected the Court of Appeal's 12 June 2009 orders, which varied the 23 May 2006 orders made by Hamilton J. The fact that the orders were entered twice was not relevant to the debtor's argument. The court dismissed the application and ordered the debtor to pay the creditor's costs of and incidental to the application.