› Statutory rights of recovery — assignability — personal rights
Bankruptcy
› Administration without sequestration
› Assignment of rights by trustee in bankruptcy — limits on assignability
Legal practitioners
› Incorporated legal practices
› Failure to give statutory notice — right to recover fees paid
Choses in action
› Assignability
› Statutory causes of action — whether personal to the claimant
Quick Take
1The statutory right of recovery conferred by cl 4(6) of Schedule 1 to the Legal Practitioners Act 1981 (SA) is a right personal to the person who paid money to or at the direction of a corporation in default of notification requirements, and is not assignable at law or in equity.
2A trustee in bankruptcy's statutory power to assign rights of action under s 100-5 of the Insolvency Practice Schedule (Schedule 2 to the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth)) extends only to causes of action that are inherently assignable; it cannot render assignable a statutory right of action that is by its nature non-assignable.
3The statutory right under cl 4(6) is sui generis in nature — akin to a statutory refund rather than a conventional debt — and its consumer-protection purpose, directed at the person who paid for legal services, does not require or support assignability.
