Commercial Law Update - Great Southern settlement deed approved

Commercial Law
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Melbourne Justice Croft approved the deed of settlement ending the Great Southern class action proceedings – Clarke (as trustee of the Clarke Family Trust) & Ors v Great Southern Finance Pty Ltd (Receivers & Managers Appointed)(in liquidation) & Ors [2014] VSC 516.

I will not make comment on this case, but instead will refer to a few key parts of the judgment -

The principal terms of the Deed of Settlement are set out at [57] and are usefully summarised at [64], which summary is reproduced here -

“The insurers of GSMAL will pay $23.8 million, to be disbursed as follows:

  1. $20 million to M+K Clients, to be disbursed pro rata based upon amounts paid by each M+K Client to M+K for legal fees and disbursements;
  2. $250,000 to Javelin Asset Management Pty Ltd; and
  3. $3.55 million to be disbursed pro rata to investors who invested pursuant to a Product Disclosure Statement issued in relation to a scheme managed by GSMAL, such disbursement to take place in accordance with the terms of a proposed Scheme of Arrangement.

Group Members’ loans entered into to fund the investments and now held by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited (or its related entities) will be admitted as valid and enforceable, and the BEN Parties will waive interest relating to overdue amounts accrued and unpaid as at the Approval Date.

Group Members’ loans entered into to fund the investments and now held by Javelin Asset Management Pty Ltd will be admitted as valid and enforceable, and borrowers with Javelin loans will have 28 days from the Approval Date to make an election to either:

  1. make payment of the outstanding loan balance in full within 14 days of making the election and receive a 20% discount on the loan balance (being the balance as at 1 May 2014); or
  2. agree to a deferred settlement with the loan balance discounted by 17% if the balance is met by way of 12 equal monthly payments; or
  3. agree to an extended term where the terms are varied so that the first 12 months after the Approval Date are interest free and then 5% per annum for the remainder of the Revised Term.

The Lead Plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and on behalf of Group Members, will release the other parties (and their related entities or persons) from all Claims arising out of the contents of each Product Disclosure Statement, the Loan Agreements and or the allegations made in or the facts giving rise to all the relevant proceedings.

The Group Proceedings will be dismissed with the parties bearing their own costs.”

His Honour took the unusual step of annexing the mammoth 2012 page unpublished judgment he had written but had never been delivered (calling them the “Great Southern Reasons”) to this judgment approving the settlement deed. His Honour notes at [2] that the trial of the Great Southern proceedings had extended over 90 sitting days from October 2012 to October 2013. Judgment was reserved. On Wednesday 23 July 2014 the parties were informed that the judgment was ready and listed for delivery on Friday 25 July. Within hours, the Court was notified that the proceedings had settled.

At [3] Croft J notes that the Great Southern Reasons are not published as reasons for judgment, simply annexed to this one, which suggests that as a precedent to future cases their status may be uncertain, and perhaps something less than obiter. Nevertheless his Honour explains why he has had regard to his Great Southern Reasons in considering whether to approve the Deed at [50]-[56], in particular at [56].

7.3% of the 21000 group members notified the Court of their objections to the settlement. These are considered by his Honour from [83].

As Croft J’s approval judgment at [6] makes clear, if the proceeding had not settled and the Great Southern Reasons had been handed down as his Honour’s judgment in the case, the plaintiffs’ claims would have been wholly unsuccessful. Moreover, given the length and expense of the proceedings and the trial, costly adverse costs consequences for the plaintiffs are likely to have followed. This settlement avoids that outcome and achieves finality in the litigation.

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Carrie is a commercial law barrister practising with a focus on insolvency and corporations law, equity and trusts, fraud, contract and restitution.

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