Walton & Anor v ACN 004 410 833 Ltd (formerly Arrium Ltd) (in liquidation) & Ors
Case No.
S20/2021
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
30/07/2020 Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Appeal) (Bathurst CJ, Bell P; Leeming JA)
Catchwords
Corporations – Examinations relating to insolvency – Abuse of process – Where s 596A of Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) requires court to issue examinations summons to a person about a company if “eligible applicant” applies for summons – Where “eligible applicants” include persons authorised by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (“ASIC”) – Where ASIC can only authorise person if person’s purpose is for benefit of corporation, its contributories or its creditors – Where applicants shareholders of respondent – Where, in 2014, respondent successfully completed capital raising for purpose of paying down debt – Where respondent entered into voluntary administration in 2016 and liquidation in 2019 – Where ASIC authorised applicants as “eligible applicants” to conduct examinations of respondent’s directors and officers – Where NSW Court of Appeal found applicants’ predominant purpose investigation and pursuit of shareholders’ private claim against directors in relation to 2014 capital raising – Where Court of Appeal held fulfilment of that purpose would not confer benefit on corporation, creditors or contributories, and therefore offensive to purpose for which s 596A enacted and abuse of process – Whether implicit purpose of obtaining information about potential misconduct is beneficial to corporation – Whether applicants’ purposes offensive or foreign to s 596A.
Documents
11/02/2021 Hearing (SLA, Canberra)
24/02/2021 Notice of appeal
15/04/2021 Written submissions (Appellants)
15/04/2021 Chronology (Appellants)
13/05/2021 Written submissions (First respondent)
13/05/2021 Written submissions (Second respondent)
03/06/2021 Reply
11/08/2021 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) VACATED
06/10/2021 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra by video connection) (Audio-visual recording)
06/10/2021 Outline of oral argument (Appellant)
06/10/2021 Outline of oral argument (First respondent)
06/10/2021 Outline of oral argument (Second respondent)
07/10/2021 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra by video connection) (Audio-visual recording)
16/02/2022 Judgment (Judgment summary)