Badja Pty Ltd, Re [2000] QSC 441

State TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDiNGS Copyright in this transcript is vested in the Crown. Copies thereof must not be made or sold without the written authority of the Director, State Reporting Bureau. SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND CIVIL JURISDICTION MACKENZIE J No 11439 of 1999 IN THE MATTER OF THE CORPORATIONS LAW and IN-THE MATTER OF BADJA PTY LTD (ACN 010 007 342) BRISBANE .. DATE 21/02/2000 JUDGMENT REVISED COPfES ISSUED State Reporting Bureau Date ,:/:Z I j /t"--'i) ·111111", Tlic l.:1w Courts, Ci:orge Stn·i:t, Bri~l,:111e, (). -lill)I) Tdeplrn11i:: fll7) J2-l7 ..JJ(ifl F:1~: 107) 32-17 5,:-::_12 -- 1 of 3 -- 21022000 T2/MLM7 M/T 7163/2000 (Mackenzie J) HIS HONOUR: The underlying proceedings are an application to wind up the company. For reasons that are said to be associated with arbitration proceedings concerning a particular project for which the debt arises and a subcontractor's charge made against the applicant, the statutory demand was not responded to within the prescribed period. The onus then falls on the company to prove solvency. There is said to be a significant excess of assets over liabilities, the complication, perhaps, being a loan to the company by the principal which it is said would be unlikely to be sought to be repaid at this time. Cross-examination of witnesses namely the accountant who prepared a balance sheet and the principal of the company is sought. I am told that this would take about half a day. The matter is not one where I feel confident that it can be dealt with without cross-examination as was suggested in the submissions by the legal representative of the company. I have made some comments during the course of the proceedings about the inappropriateness of using winding up proceedings, in general terms, as a debt collecting mechanism and I have referred to the fact that there may well be a pyrrhic victory in terms of the outcome, particularly having regard to the cost of Supreme Court proceedings if the company is ultimately found to be 10 20 30 40 50 solvent. This is particularly stark when one looks at the 60 2 JUDGMENT -- 2 of 3 -- 21022000 T2/MLM7 M/T 7163/2000 (Mackenzie J) level of the debt which, after taking into account the quantum of the subcontractor's charge, is somewhere in the vicinity of $10,000 or a little less. I suggested that there may be cheaper ways of resolving the issue rather than Supreme Court proceedings. The solicitor for the applicant has indicated to me that he is aware of those problems and has conveyed that to his client on a previous occasion. In all of the circumstances it seems to me that the only course I can reasonably adopt in relation to the matter is to make an order in terms of the draft, amended by me, and signed and placed with the papers. 3 JUDGMENT IO 20 30 40 50 60 -- 3 of 3 --