Petricevic trust lawyers chase costs

Rod Petricevic. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Lawyers for Rod Petricevic's family trust have filed an application to secure costs against a liquidated Bridgecorp subsidiary that is taking legal action against the trust over an unsecured advance of $2.2 million.

The R.M. Petricevic Family Trust lawyer, Bruce Stewart, QC, said the trust has applied to secure costs against Navigator Finance - an offshoot of Bridgecorp - to ensure there is money available should the trust win the legal battle against Corporate Finance, the liquidators of Navigator.

A hearing on the application will be held at the High Court at Auckland today.

In November, the liquidators successfully fought to keep a ban on the sale of Petricevic's $4.4 million Remuera home that is owned by the trust.

At the time, High Court Associate Judge John Faire ruled that the caveat would stay in place until after the three-day hearing set for next month which will determine whether the trust needs to repay the $2.2 million advance.

Judge Faire said the caveat had the "effect of tying up a substantial asset of the trust".

Petricevic and his wife Mary were the only directors of Navigator until it was placed into liquidation last June. Petricevic has been banned as a company director and is facing criminal and fraud charges, which he is defending. Last week he had a legal aid application denied because of his alleged assets under trust.

Navigator Finance's majority shareholder is BFSL 2007, which is in receivership as part of the collapse of the Bridgecorp Group.

Petricevic was a director of BFSL 2007 with fellow former Bridgecorp directors Robert Roest, Bruce Davidson, Peter Steigrad and Gary Urwin.

Corporate Finance liquidator Andrew McKay stated in a report that one asset of Navigator's was an unsecured advance to the R.M. Petricevic Family Trust for the sum of $2.2 million paid in 2007. The advance has not been repaid.

In 2008, Bridgecorp receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers bankrupted Petricevic for the $666,186 he owed creditors for a personal tax bill the company paid for him in September 2006.