$3.5m Stonewood Homes Ltd settlement payment revealed

Legal action against Queenstown Lake Mayor Jim Boult and another director of a failed construction company was settled with a $3.5 million payment to its liquidators. Photo / Supplied

Legal action against Queenstown Lake Mayor Jim Boult and another director of a failed construction company was settled with a $3.5 million payment to its liquidators, a new report says.

Stonewood Homes Ltd and its associated companies were placed into liquidation in the High Court at Christchurch in February 2016 with millions of dollars owing to creditors.

The company's liquidators, Rhys Cain and Rees Logan, took Boult and Stonewood founder and director Brent Mettrick to court alleging they continued trading while the companies were insolvent.

Part of the legal proceedings were also to recover alleged ''excessive remuneration'' paid to Boult.

In August, Cain confirmed the proceeding had been settled but would not expand on the details.

The company's latest six-monthly liquidator's report released on Friday said the proceedings were settled and withdrawn after the payment of $3.5 million with no admission of liability by the defendants.

The respective contribution of each paying party to the settlement amount was confidential, it said.

The liquidators had received just over $25million in claims from creditors for Stonewood Homes Ltd, as well as $13.6 million for its associated company Stonewood Homes New Zealand Ltd.

Just $4.6 million each had been paid from both companies and the liquidators said there were insufficient funds received for further payments to secured creditors and there would be no dividend for unsecured creditors, the report said.

In the past six months, the liquidations for two other associated companies — Sterling Homes (Christchurch) Ltd and Premium Living Ltd — were completed.

When contacted, Boult declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement.

The liquidation was expected to be completed in the next two or three months.