KKL (Kangaroo Line) Pty Ltd v Beaufort Shipping Agency & Anor [2008] NSWSC 663

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : KKL (Kangaroo Line) Pty Ltd v Beaufort Shipping Agency & Anor [2008] NSWSC 663 This decision has been amended. Please see the end of the judgment for a list of the amendments.

HEARING DATE(S) : 13 June 2008

JUDGMENT DATE : 2 July 2008

JUDGMENT OF : Smart AJ at 1

DECISION : See paragraph 64

CATCHWORDS : Court's Records - Whether Court's order made on 28 May 1986 and entered on 22 March 1988 - Regard to be had to original documents on Court's files - Cogent discretionary factors against granting relief in addition - Refusal to set orders aside

LEGISLATION CITED : Companies (New South Wales) Code

PARTIES : KKL (Kangaroo Line) Pty Ltd v Beaufort Shipping Agency Pty Ltd and Anor Trygve Vangsnes v Ernst & Young

FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 10780/1986

SOLICITORS : Mr Vangsnes (In Person) Mr G Scarcella (Blake Dawson Waldron)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION

SMART AJ

Wednesday, 2 July 2008

10780/1986: KKL (KANGAROO LINE) PTY LTD

v BEAUFORT SHIPPING AGENCY PTY and ANOR JUDGMENT 1 KKL (Kangaroo Line) Pty Limited ("KKL") has been in liquidation since January 1986 (Provisional Liquidator appointed 14/15 January 1986; Liquidator appointed 17 February 1986). Mr Trygve Vangsnes, a creditor and former managing director of KKL filed his motion of 15 January 2008 which was in unusual terms. Amongst other things, it stated: "Filed in relation to 1. Justice McDougall's 1 May 2006 judgment that Mr Vangsnes be given the opportunity to consider the relief sought in a more detailed fashion by way of another notice of motion which the liquidator moved that Mr Vangsnes be not permitted to file. 2. The Authenticity of the order allegedly made and entered on 22 March 1988 pursuant to judgment made by Justice Rogers on 28 May 1986, which according to the Court's records and reports and directions between 1999 and 2001 is a phantom order that on the evidence before the Court as of 11 May 2001 was never made." 2 Under the heading "Persons Affected by Orders /Sought" the Notice of Motion stated in summary: 1. This Court which applied the subject order in judgments by Bryson J, McLaughlin M and Einstein J and Court of Appeal between 1995 and 1998 [who were unaware of the Court's subsequent investigation and reports that no judgment or order was made on the Liquidator's 28 May 1986 application before Rogers J] which may otherwise not have been given and which further caused Judge Politan of the United States District Court in 1988 and US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on 25 June 1999 to deny comity to this Court on the ground that Australian Courts which ratified the Liquidators confidential settlement agreements on 28 May 1986 without the creditors prior knowledge, violate United States Law and US citizens and creditors rights to a fair treatment of their claims. In this Court's reports and proceedings on 3 February 1999 and 11 May 2001 the Orders purporting to be made on 28 May 1986 were never made.