Who Wins Here ?

Graeme from Frankton

In life , we need to pay our bills . I'll start from that point . Occassionally , stuff happens , and most people work through things .

I was saddened to read in the weekend ( on Stuff ) about a guy called Lloyd Green . I don't know this guy by the way .

He owned a company called Great Barrier Rental Cars . He had owned it for 20 years . He refused to pay a mechanic somewhere between $5000-7000 , disputing the quality of the work . He was advised the day before it went to court that this guy was taking him to court -- apparently the papers were sent to his old address , which was his ex-wifes house . We can only guess what happened .

Anyway , the next day it went to court , he wasn't fully prepared , the Judge believed the other guy , or this Lloyd guy didn't put up a strong case , or whatever , and he was ordered to pay about $10,000 including the other guys legal fees . He lost .

He didn't/couldn't pay -- presumably part out of spite , but to be fair it does sound like he was short of money , so the Court ordered his business be liquidated . He was then ( at 57 ) out of work , with no income .

He committed suicide .

The business was liquidated . All the assets ( cars ) were sold . All secured creditors were paid . The liquidator billed $119,000 , but only got paid $78,000 as there was no more money . Unsecured creditors were $50,000 ( presumably including the $10k court ordered debt ) , and the IRD $7000 . That may be GST on the sale of vehicles , or it may have been owing for months , it isn't clear .

So one guy ( a divorced/seperated Dad ) is dead . The unsecured creditors and IRD are $57k out of pocket . But you will have noticed that the liquidator got $78k . Which means every debt , without her involvement ( the liquidator was a female ) , would have been paid . It is fair to assume that as a trading company , the debts could have all been paid , and this Lloyd Green would have still been alive . It may have taken time , and I accept we don't know the full circumstances .

But I also fail to understand how a business with $57,000 in debts can be charged $119,000 by a liquidator to 'wind it up' . She may argue she did her job and was paid the allowed rate for the hours worked , and that her job was made more difficult by the fact the guy had died . But surely common sense would kick in somewhere ?