Scope Data Systems Pty Ltd v David Goman as Rep of the Partnership BDO Nelson Parkhill [2007] NSWSC 278

CORPORATIONS – Statutory demand – Service of documents – Application to set aside or vary statutory demand on grounds of offsetting claim by post – Whether application to set aside made within 21 days of service of statutory demand – Service of statutory demand under s 109X (CTH) Corporations Act – Where mail addressed to registered office diverted to post office box - Where evidence rebuts presumption in s 29 of (CTH) Acts Interpretation Act that statutory demand served in the ordinary course of post – Applicability of s160 of the (NSW) Evidence Act – Section 160 of the (NSW) Evidence Act not displaced by s 109X of (CTH) Corporations Act and s 29 of the Acts Interpretation Act (Cth) – No presumption that statutory demand received in post office box on fourth working day after posting where that was not the specified address – Whether receipt in post office box effective as service at registered office – Whether possible to rebut presumption of delivery in ordinary course of post if mail diverted to post office box - Held demand not served until taken to registered office after being collected from box – Plaintiff’s application to set aside statutory demand filed and served within time prescribed by s 459G (CTH) Corporations Act – Offsetting claim genuine.

(CTH) Corporations Act, ss 109X, 459G, 459H. - (CTH) Acts Interpretation Act, s 29. - (NSW) Evidence Act, s 160.

LEGISLATION CITED: Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) - Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth) - Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) -Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) - Australian Postal Corporation (Performance Standards) Regulation 1998 (Cth) - Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth) - Building Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW) - Legal Profession Act 1987 (NSW)

Click here to read full-screen | Click here to print the case