Court denies Bob Jones' company documents

Sir Bob Jones, at his offices of Robt. Jones Holdings Limited. Photo / Brett Phibbs, NZ Herald

Sir Bob Jones' company has been denied access to documents held by Blue Chip liquidators, who are trying to claw back $750,000 from the property mogul's firm.

Robt Jones Holdings is in a stoush over whether about $750,000 it received from Northern Crest Investments should be set aside by that firm's liquidators.

Northern Crest was part of the Blue Chip empire, which collapsed in 2008 owing millions of dollars to investors. The company owes unsecured creditors $10.1 million. Blue Chip investors have claimed around $36 million in the liquidation but these have not been accepted to date.

North Crest leased a floor in a central Auckland office tower from Robt Jones Holdings but left the premises in August 2008, halfway through a six-year lease.

Robt Jones Holdings, which calls itself New Zealand's largest private CBD office building owner, got a High Court judgment in September 2009 against Northern Crest for about $300,000, which was paid after liquidation proceedings were brought.

The now-failed firm then settled other debts with the property mogul's company before moving operations across the Tasman in November 2010.

Liquidators from PKF Corporate Recovery & Insolvency, appointed in 2011, have since identified around $750,000 of payments from Northern Crest to Robt Jones Holdings they believe are voidable.

Robt Jones Holdings is challenging the attempt to set aside the $750,000 and one of its grounds of opposition is that the liquidators have allegedly failed to show that at the time of the disputed payments, Northern Crest was unable to pay its debts.

Satisfying this point is a key hurdle in a liquidator claw-back claim.

Robt Jones Holdings went to the High Court in February wanting access to more documents from the liquidators, who say they have already disclosed more than 1400 pages so far.

It sought a series of documents, including a license agreement that it said could show Northern Crest was solvent, as cash flow from license payments would allow it to pay its debts.

It also sought correspondence between the liquidators and a solicitor who did work for Northern Crest, documents from a dispute with a creditor, documents about Inland Revenue allegedly owing the firm $500,000 and those concerning liquidator fees.

But Associate Judge Roger Bell rejected the application and said Robt Jones Holdings could not "seriously argue that Northern Crest was solvent" at the relevant times because its own dealings showed the company could not pay all its due debts.

"The pursuit of documents to probe the solvency of Northern Crest is a barren exercise," the Associate Judge said in a decision on Friday.

Robt Jones' application to waive legal privilege over some documents was also rejected.
The firm must now file affidavits in opposition to the liquidators case.