The Court refused an application by a supporting creditor (Ottley Capital) to be substituted as plaintiff in a winding up proceeding under s 465B of the Corporations Act, finding that the defendant company had established genuine disputes as to the existence and quantum of the claimed debt of approximately $6.7 million. The disputes concerned whether the creditor was entitled to issue a default notice and seize cattle under the parties' Master Livestock Services and Security Agreement, whether the proceeds of sale had discharged the debt, and whether additional feed costs and management fees were double-counted. The Court held these were complex questions of contractual construction, statutory rights under the PPSA, and mixed fact and law that could not be resolved summarily and required adjudication at trial. The Court also refused cross-examination of a deponent, applying Aussie Vic Plant Hire to confirm that cross-examination is rarely appropriate in substitution applications analogous to statutory demand proceedings.
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