Cook's Construction Pty Ltd v Brown & Anor [2004] NSWCA 105

Reported Decision : 49 ACSR 62

New South Wales Court of Appeal

CITATION : Cook's Construction Pty Ltd v Brown & Anor [2004] NSWCA 105 HEARING DATE(S) : 22 March 2004 JUDGMENT DATE : 22 March 2004

JUDGMENT OF : Hodgson JA at 39-43, 53; Santow JA at 44-52; Young CJ in Eq at 1-38 DECISION : Appeal dismissed with costs.

CATCHWORDS : CORPORATIONS- Hired machinery- Debts unpaid- Alleged preferences under s 588FF of the Corporations Act 2001- Heavy onus on payee. CORPORATIONS- How purpose is established- Question of fact- State of mind of corporation- How is it assessed that corporation had suspicion- Whether no reasonable grounds for suspecting insolvency. EVIDENCE- Jones v Dunkel- Two aspects of rule- Whether test objective or subjective- Court has regard to the material available to a party and what was deployed in evidence by that party. LEGISLATION CITED : Corporations Act 2001 ss 9, 588FC, 588FF, 588FG Arthur Yates & Co Pty Ltd v The Vegetable Seeds Committee (1945) 72 CLR 37 D'Aloia v Federal Commissioner of Taxation (2003) 203 ALR 609 Fabre v Arenales (1992) 27 NSWLR 437 Harkness v Commonwealth Bank of Australia (1993) 32 NSWLR 543 Ho v Powell (2001) 51 NSWLR 572 Johns v Australian Securities Commission (1992) 8 ACSR 156 CASES CITED : Jones v Dunkel (1959) 101 CLR 298 Municipal Council of Sydney v Campbell [1925] AC 338 (PC) Parramatta City Council v Hale (1982) 47 LGRA 319 Re The Mayor, etc, of the City of Hawthorn; Ex parte The Co-operative Brick Company Ltd [1909] VLR 27 Spedley Securities Ltd v Western United Ltd (1992) 27 NSWLR 111 Sydney Appliances Pty Ltd v Eurolinx Pty Ltd (2001) 19 ACLC 633 Wily v Lo Presti (No 2) (1998) 16 ACLC 85 PARTIES : Cook's Construction Pty Ltd (A) Martin Russell Brown and Timothy James Cuming in their capacity as Liquidators of DML Resources Pty Ltd (In liq) (R) FILE NUMBER(S) : CA 40955/03 COUNSEL : J Langmead SC and K Baker (A) C R C Newlinds SC and S M Seward (R) SOLICITORS : Dibbs Barker Gosling as City Agents for Macpherson + Kelley (Dandenong) (A) Kemp Strang (R)