Where a company's share register is lost, membership may be established by inferential reasoning from ASIC returns and other evidence, but the claimant bears the onus of proof and must overcome countervailing inferences including unchallenged denials by the alleged transferor, absence of executed transfer documents, and absence of evidence of tax treatment of the claimed transfer. The absence of evidence of stamp duty or capital gains tax payment is relevant but not determinative. An ASIC annual return recording a person as a shareholder, even when personally completed by the alleged transferor, is insufficient to discharge the burden of proof where the transferor gives unchallenged evidence that the entry was mistaken.
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