David Henderson creditors push for a recount
Long fight against an IRD bankruptcy bid continues with a debate over numbers.
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EARNINGS
Auckland property developer David Henderson faces another round in his long-running battle against Inland Revenue bankruptcy proceedings.
Mr Henderson has applied for an adjournment for a full court hearing on his second creditors proposal, which he made after Associate Judge Jeremy Doogue earlier rejected his first one.
Inland Revenue, which opposes the adjournment, has also applied for a separate hearing on the preliminary issue of whether Mr Henderson's second creditors proposal actually met the required threshold.
Mr Henderson's proposal scraped through with 75.68%, just above the required 75% support required from creditors.
But Inland Revenue, supported by BankWest and Downer Construction, wants the High Court to take another look at the maths of the proposal.
According to Mr Henderson's lawyer Daniel Grove, the .68% by which the proposal passed the threshold represents $872,000.
Inland Revenue lawyer Paul Murray raised the issue of whether ASB, which claimed for $720,000, had a right to vote at the meeting for the second proposal because it hadn't filled out a claim form.
Associate Judge David Abbott said, "It seems a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut to have a separate question only on that issue."
But Mr Murray said the point about ASB was only "illustrative" and there were other issues to be considered.
One of these is whether Downer Construction, owed $3.6 million, had the right to vote at the meeting. It was prevented from voting and would have voted against the proposal.
Mr Grove said Downer had plenty of time to appeal the decision and hadn't done so.
Associate Judge Abbott reserved his decision in relation to the adjournment.
Niko Kloeten
Tue, 31 May 2011
Tue, 31 May 2011
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David Henderson creditors push for a recount
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