Levi Smouha acted as a senior solicitor for the plaintiff (creditor) in conducting insolvent trading proceedings through to a trial in the Federal Court of Australia.

The matter stemmed from a payment dispute between a development company and the builder across a number of sites, which ended up with the developer going into liquidation. The builder with consent of the liquidator then pursued the director of the development company for insolvent trading claiming their debts were when the company was insolvent.

The matter had a number of interlocutory decisions along the way:

• Vantage Holdings Pty Ltd v Huang [2015] FCA 155 - successfully defending a late application for security for costs
• Vantage Holdings Pty Ltd v Huang (No 2) [2015] FCA 185 - successfully obtaining a fixed costs order
• Vantage Holdings Pty Ltd v Huang (No 3) [2015] FCA 383 - successfully obtaining a freezing order to stop the defendant from disposing of assets prior to trial
• Huang v Vantage Holdings Pty Ltd [2015] FCA 693 - successfully opposing an appeal of security for costs decision