Switch Telecommunications Pty Limited (in liq) & 1 Ors; ex parte Steven John Sherman and Peter Murray Walker [2000] NSWSC 794

Reported Decision : (2000) 35 ACSR 172

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Switch Telecommunications Pty Limited (in liq) & 1 Ors; ex parte Steven John Sherman and Peter Murray Walker [2000] NSWSC 794 revised - 15/08/2000 CURRENT JURISDICTION: Equity FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 2506/00 HEARING DATE(S) : 29/05/00, 31/05/00, 05/06/00, 10/07/00 JUDGMENT DATE : 10 August 2000

PARTIES : In the matter of Switch Telecommunications Pty Limited (in liquidation) (ACN 073 878 716) and Switch Operations Pty Limited (in liquidation) (ACN 082 988 850) and the Corporations Law Steven John Sherman and Peter Murray Walker (Plaintiffs) JUDGMENT OF : Santow J

COUNSEL : M Oakes, SC (Plaintiffs) SOLICITORS : Kemp Strang (Plaintiffs) CATCHWORDS : CORPORATIONS — Means of binding creditors to a pooling of assets and liabilities in a liquidation of two companies where affairs so intertwined they could not be separated and where creditors of each company could not be identified save that they were creditors of one or other — How may dissentients and non voting creditors be bound in absence of s411 scheme where this uneconomic — Use of s510 of Corporations Law and s1322 remedial orders — Alternative of s447A in combination with a compromise approved under s477(1)(c) and s477(2A) of Corporations Law — scope of s447A — are dissentients bound. LEGISLATION CITED : Corporations Law Pt 5.1, Pt 5.3A, Pt 5.5, s249, s411, s446A, s447A, s477, s479, s506, s507; s510, s511, s555, s1322 In re Albert Life Assurance Company (1871) LR 6 Ch App 381 Re Arrowfield Group Ltd (1995) 13 ACLC 1187 Australasian Memory Pty Ltd v Brien (1997) 149 ALR 393; (1998) 45 NSWLR 111; [2000] HCA 30 Re Austcorp Tiles Pty Ltd (1992) 10 ACLC 62 ASC v Marlborough Gold Mines Ltd (1993) 177 CLR 485 Re Bank of Credit & Commerce International SA (No 3) [1993] BCLC 106 and on appeal [1993] BCLC 1490 Bank of Upper India v Arif Husain AIR 1931 Allahabad 59(2) Bulfin v Bebarfald's Limited (1938) 38 SR(NSW) 423 Re Charter Travel Co Ltd (1997) 25 ACSR 337 CASES CITED : Re Contal Radio Ltd [1932] 2 Ch 66 Dean-Willcocks v Soluble Solution Pty Ltd (1997) 42 NSWLR 209 Re E D White Ltd (1929) 29 SR(NSW) 389 Re Farmers' Freehold Land Co Ltd (1892) 3 BC(NSW) 39 Re Marra Developments Ltd (1976) 1 ACLR 470 Mentha v G E Capital Ltd (1997) 27 ACSR 696 MYT Engineering Pty Ltd v Mulcon Pty Limited (1997) 25 ACSR 78 Re Robinson & the Trustee Act 1925 [1983] 1 NSWLR 154 Setco Manufacturing Pty Ltd v Sifa Pty Ltd (1982) 7 ACLR 327 Taylor v Morris [1993] BCLC 1343 Re Trix Ltd [1970] 3 All ER 397 DECISION : Compromise approved with pooling arrangement.