DeGraeve v Bondi Diggers Memorial & Sporting Club Ltd [2005] NSWSC 1289

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : DeGraeve v Bondi Diggers Memorial & Sporting Club Ltd [2005] NSWSC 1289

HEARING DATE(S) : 4 November 2005

JUDGMENT DATE : 4 November 2005

JUDGMENT OF : Brereton J

CATCHWORDS : CORPORATIONS – external administration – liquidators – application for directions – whether liquidator justified in relinquishing misconceived claim to bank accounts when it suspects that contents of accounts may be proceeds of crime - PROCEEDS OF CRIME - whether liquidator entitled to refuse to release funds to beneficial owner by reason of concern that they might be proceeds of crime.

Associations Incorporations Act 1984 (NSW) Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), s 511 LEGISLATION CITED : Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), ss 29B, 29D Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), ss 407, 409 Social Security Act 1991 (Cth), s 1334

Philippe DeGraeve (plaintiff) PARTIES : Bondi Diggers Memorail & Sporting Club Limited (defendant)

FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 2412/05

E White (plaintiff) COUNSEL : C D Wood (defendant)

George Angelinas (plaintiff) SOLICITORS : Pigott Stinson Ratner Thom (defendant)

LOWER COURT JURISDICTION :

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES EQUITY DIVISION

BRERETON J

Friday 4 November 2005

2412/05 Philippe DeGraeve v Bondi Diggers Memorial & Sporting Club Limited (in liq) JUDGMENT (ex tempore – revised 20 December 2005) 1 HIS HONOUR: At the centre of these proceedings is a dispute between the plaintiff, Philippe Degraeve, and the defendant, Bondi Diggers Memorial & Sporting Club Limited, now in liquidation, as to their respective entitlement to five accounts with the St George Bank in the name of Bondi Diggers Social Swimming Club. 2 By summons filed on 12 April 2005 Mr Degraeve claims declarations that he is entitled to accounts in the name of Bondi Diggers Social Swimming Club numbered 144 640 007 (the 007 account) and 014 635 605 (the 605 account) and three interest bearing deposits numbered 393 031 261, 333 481 594 and 339 534 061, and declarations that amounts of $7,650 withdrawn from the 007 account and $750 from the 605 account on 21 March 2003 should be reimbursed to those accounts by the defendant. 3 By cross-claim filed on 14 June 2005, the defendant claimed a direction, pursuant to Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), s 511, that the liquidator would be justified in informing the St George Bank that he had no claim in respect of the moneys in the 007 and 605 accounts, and ceasing to be a signatory to those accounts. The proceedings were set down for hearing today, only in respect of the relief claimed in the cross-claim, and I have this morning made an order that the proceedings on the cross-claim be determined separately to and before the other questions arising in the proceedings. Mr Degraeve, as cross-defendant, unsurprisingly does not oppose the relief sought by the club in the cross-claim, which will effectively give him the result he seeks in his summons.