Gale v Gale [2003] NSWSC 930

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Gale v Gale [2003] NSWSC 930 HEARING DATE(S) : 09/10/2003 JUDGMENT DATE : 6 November 2003 JURISDICTION: Equity Division JUDGMENT OF : Master Macready at 1 DECISION : Paragraph 25

CATCHWORDS : Corporations Law. Application to set aside a statutory demand. Allegations of defects in the demand and affidavit in support not sufficient to set aside demand. Abuse of process in respect of other court proceedings between related parties. Demand set aside on basis of genuine dispute as to identity of creditor. PARTIES : Tooher Gale & Associates Pty Limited v Gale Planning Group Pty Limited FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 3264 of 2003 COUNSEL : G. Bateman for plaintiff G. Moore for defendant SOLICITORS : Helliars City Solicitors for plaintiff Colquhoun & Colquhoun for defendant

- 1 - IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES EQUITY DIVISION

Master Macready

Thursday 6 November 2003

3264 of 2003 Tooher Gale & Associates Pty Limited v Gale Planning Group Pty Limited JUDGMENT

1 MASTER: This is an application to set aside a statutory demand under s 459G of the Corporations Act. The demand was issued by the defendant against the plaintiff claiming an amount of $17,000 for what was described in the schedule as "the balance of the bonus consulting fee for the period ended 30 June 1998. The demand was dated 23 May 2003 and the proceedings were commenced within time. The defendant company is a company which was formerly known as "John Gale Consulting Pty Limited" and is a company of which Mr John Leslie Gale was a director. Mr John Gale was formerly a member of the plaintiff company for a number of years and the present dispute is one of a series of disputes arising out of the relationship that did exist between Mr John Gale his companies and the plaintiff company, Tooher Gale & Associates Pty Limited. 2 The plaintiff company says that there are three reasons why the statutory demand should be set aside. They are:-