M2 Assets Pty Ltd v GT Capital Partners Pty Ltd (Subject to Deed of Company Arrangement) [No 2]

The case of M2 Assets Pty Ltd v GT Capital Partners Pty Ltd (Subject to Deed of Company Arrangement) [No 2] involved the former provisional liquidators of GT Capital Partners Pty Ltd seeking a remuneration determination for their services. The former provisional liquidators, Gregory Bruce Dudley and Jerome Hall Mohen, sought to be paid for the work they had performed in the provisional liquidation of GT Capital. The parties involved were M2 Assets Pty Ltd, GT Capital Partners Pty Ltd (subject to a deed of company arrangement), Colin James Graham, and Gregory Bruce Dudley and Jerome Hall Mohen as former joint and several provisional liquidators of GT Capital Partners Pty Ltd (subject to a deed of company arrangement). The application was heard in the Supreme Court of Western Australia and the court granted the application for remuneration determination.

The legal issues that the court was required to decide were whether the procedural requirements of the Supreme Court (Corporations) (WA) Rules 2004 r 9.3 were satisfied and whether the remuneration claimed by the former provisional liquidators was fair and reasonable.

The court found that the procedural requirements were satisfied as the application was made by interlocutory process in the winding-up proceeding, notice was given in accordance with Form 16, and no notice of objection was received within the 21-day period. The first affidavit of Mr Mohen also complied with the requirements set out in r 9.3(7). The court then considered the reasonableness of the remuneration claimed, taking into account factors such as the extent to which the work was necessary and properly performed, the complexity of the work, the quality of the work performed, and any other relevant matters.

The court concluded that the former provisional liquidators had made out a prima facie case on the evidence that the remuneration claimed was fair and reasonable. The work performed by the former provisional liquidators was necessary and properly performed, and the amount of remuneration claimed was reasonable given the complexity of the case and the time taken to perform the work.

In conclusion, the court granted the application for remuneration determination and ordered that the remuneration of Gregory Bruce Dudley and Jerome Hall Mohen be determined in the amount of $147,994 plus GST. The costs of and incidental to the application were also ordered to be part of the costs, charges, and expenses in the deed of company arrangement of GT Capital Partners Pty Ltd and be paid out on an indemnity basis.