Ode to a dead company

[Clitheroekid]

It's very rare that judgments in insolvency cases are either (1) short; or (2) worth reading, but this is an exception.

It's a judgment from the Western Australia Supreme Court, and represents the end of the corporate equivalent of Jarndyce -v Jarndyce. It serves as a dire warning of the perils of litigation, which, in this case, went on for no less than 25 years.

One paragraph in the judgment is quite poetical - not something to be anticipated from an insolvency judge:

“Thousands of people worked on this case. Most have put the experience behind them and moved on; many, shattered by the experience, have retired; more than a few have gone mad. Now the guns have fallen silent. The smell of cordite, gun powder and napalm no longer fills the air. The dead and wounded have been removed from the battle field. The victors have divided the spoils and departed.”

And it's the first (and probably the last) judgment I've ever seen that ended with the word "Amen".

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewd ... 0/347.html

[unperplex]

Many thanks for linking to this fascinating item.
I can’t imagine a UK judge/Master (or whatever they call them these days) using such colourful language or being so straightforward.

[johnhemming]

There is the no right to lie in vomit case of course

[Dod101]

Thanks CK. I can see that you rather enjoy these dry judgements, dry in every sense of the term, but this one is a real gem.

Dod