where the first respondent has two proceedings in the Administrative Review Tribunal over alleged tax refunds withheld by the third respondent (the Tax Proceedings)
Quick Take
1A registered PPSA security interest over a grantor's present and after-acquired property takes priority over a subsequent outright equitable assignment of an expectancy: the statutory policy of the PPSA (ss 18–20) prevents a later equitable assignment from removing after-acquired property from the scope of a prior security interest at the instant the property comes into existence.
2Section 444D(2) of the Corporations Act preserves a secured creditor's right to realise its security interest — including over after-acquired property — notwithstanding that the underlying secured debt has been released by a deed of company arrangement; the section does not interfere with property rights but preserves them, and Re Bluenergy Group Ltd is doubted insofar as it confines the preserved security to property capable of attachment at the date of release.
3Where competing equitable claims to future property arise simultaneously upon the property coming into existence, the PPSA's statutory framework — not merely equitable priority rules — governs the competition, and a subsequent outright assignment cannot defeat a prior registered security interest by characterising the property as never having been acquired by the grantor.
