Re: Hawkins; Ex Parte: Deputy Commissioner of Taxation v Hawkins [1995] FCA 1194

JUDGMENT No. L224, F225

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

) GENERAL DIVISION ) BANKRUPTCY DISTRICT ) OF THE STATE OF NEW SOUTH WALES )

No. NX 146 of 1994

Re: JOHN CAMPBELL HAWKINS Debtor

Ex parte: DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF

TAXATION Applicant/Creditor

And: JOHN CAMPBELL, HAWKINS First respondent

And: RODERICK GERARD CUNICH Second respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

EINFELD J SYDNEY 30 MARCH 1995

By application to the court filed on 18 November 1994, the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation seeks a series of orders concerning a meeting of the debtor's creditors called on 19 October 1994, following upon an authority signed by the debtor under section 188 of the Bankruptcy Act (the Act), to consider a deed of arrangement under Part X of the Act. The orders sought relate not particularly to that meeting but to the purported signing by the debtor of a second authority on 28 October 1994 calling a further meeting of creditors on 21 November 1994, by seeking a declaration that the second authority is invalid ang

injunction to stop the November meeting.

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

21 JAN 2nn3 LIBRARY

Sooncoscenen

- 2 - The circumstances of this matter are of some peculiarity but it is first necessary to state that the Deputy Commissioner issued notices of assessment to the debtor for the years ending 30 June 1989 to 30 June 1992 inclusive which, together with additional tax for late payment and presumably interest, now require the payment by the debtor to the Deputy Commissioner of a sum in the order of $700,000. In fact the total indebtedness of the debtor as at the time of the meeting held on 19 October was somewhere in the vicinity of $50 million. The meeting was called to consider a proposal that he pay to his trustee, for the benefit of his creditors, the sum of $300,000 by instalments, half of the money to be paid each 6 months of the first 18 months after the execution of the deed, and the remaining $150,000 within 24