I have expanded my online digest of PPSA cases to include two recent decisions.
Gelpack Enterprises Pty Ltd, Re [2015] NSWSC 1558
Gelpack is a case about authority needed to sign or agree to terms of a security agreement, and is also interesting because the court commented on the nature of the rights in collateral that a grantor needs to have to support attachment of a security interest.
The court said – not surprisingly – that the rights did not need to amount to absolute ownership; but also said that rights of mere possession might not be enough.
Interleasing (Australia) Limited v Tieman Industries Pty Ltd [2015] FCA 1120
interlink concerned a security interest granted by a company in its capacity as trustee. The secured party made a registration against the ACN of the company, not the ABN of the trust. The reported decision at this stage concerned only whether the case should be transferred from the NSW to the Victorian registry of the Federal Court (the court said no).
The facts of the case are a handy reminder of the importance of using the correct identifying number when the grantor is a trustee company. If the trust has an ABN, a registration in respect of collateral held as trustee should be against the trust ABN, not the company ACN. If, as is often the case, the security is over collateral held in the company’s own capacity as well as in its trustee capacity, then there should be two registrations (or, perhaps, one registration with two grantors) – both the ACN and the ABN.
Digest of PPSA cases
Please go to PPS cases for a link to my digest of reported Australian cases, including the two new cases described above.