Wu v Roufeil as Trustee of the Bankrupt Estate of Yan Wu [2019] FCA 1099

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Wu v Roufeil as Trustee of the Bankrupt Estate of Yan Wu [2019] FCA 1099 File number: NSD 2123 of 2018

Judge: RARES J

Date of judgment: 14 June 2019

Legislation: Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth)

Date of hearing: 14 June 2019

Registry: New South Wales

Division: General Division

National Practice Area: Commercial and Corporations

Sub-area: General and Personal Insolvency

Category: No Catchwords

Number of paragraphs: 24

Counsel for the Applicant: The applicant appeared in person

Counsel for the Respondent: Ms M Castle with Mr TJ Krayem

Solicitor for the Respondent: Gillis Delaney Lawyers

ORDERS NSD 2123 of 2018

BETWEEN: YAN WU Applicant

AND: MARK DAMIAN CHARLES ROUFEIL AS TRUSTEE OF THE BANKRUPT ESTATE OF YAN WU Respondent

JUDGE: RARES J DATE OF ORDER: 14 JUNE 2019

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. These proceedings be dismissed. 2. The trustee's costs be his costs in his administration of the bankrupt estate. Note: Entry of orders is dealt with in Rule 39.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011.

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

(REVISED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT)

RARES J: 1 This is an application to remove Mark Roufeil as the trustee of the bankrupt estate of Yan Wu. On 23 January 2019, Ms Wu, when represented by lawyers, filed a notice of grounds to remove Mr Roufeil as her trustee in bankruptcy. In essence, those grounds asserted two bases on which the removal should take place.

The alleged grounds for removal 2 The first ground was that Mr Roufeil had entered into a funding agreement with the principal creditor of the bankrupt estate, Albert Ling, who had previously had a personal romantic relationship with Ms Wu. That relationship ended unhappily and Mr Ling succeeded subsequently in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and in the Court of Appeal of that Court to enforce his claim that Ms Wu owed him a substantial sum of money with a very substantial interest rate. Ms Wu complained that, in effect, Mr Roufeil is in some form of inappropriate relationship with Mr Ling in relation to the funding needed by the estate to enable it to recover all of the assets of the bankrupt so that they may be distributed to her creditors in accordance with the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth), with any surplus being made over to her. 3 The second ground in Ms Wu's notice in support of Mr Roufeil's removal, asserted that he was in a conflict of interest and or duties in his capacities, first, as Ms Wu's trustee and, secondly, as the then provisional liquidator of Pan Pac Investment Pty Ltd (in prov liq), which, in the past, had acted as a trustee of Ms Wu's family trust. Ms Wu asserts that a new trustee of the family trust had been appointed into Pan Pac's place. 4 Mr Ling commenced proceedings in the Supreme Court against Pan Pac, seeking to enforce an equitable charge over a property in Croydon that he claimed it had given him as security for Ms Wu's debt due to him. That matter had been set down for hearing before Robb J for two days commencing on 24 September 2018. However, earlier in September 2018, Jagot J appointed Mr Roufeil as provisional liquidator of Pan Pac, as a result of which the hearing before the Supreme Court had to be adjourned. The Supreme Court cross-vested that proceeding into this Court and it is now set down for hearing for four days before me (NSD2271/2018) (the Ling proceeding), together with a proceeding brought by Mr Roufeil in his capacity as Ms Wu's trustee in bankruptcy against Pan Pac, Ms Wu and her sister, Bing Wu (NSD1640/2018) (the Roufeil proceeding), commencing on 2 December 2019.