Keeping it Civil as creditors dump Jirsch

Jirsch Sutherland's Daniel Civil (L)

IT was fortuitous that no vases were present in the Ming Room at 3 Spring Street last Friday because the unsecureds in attendance were fit to topple a dynasty.

When they learned that the patriarch had had a seizure, they laughed. When the contents of his doctor's certificate were divulged, derision and cynicisms were elicited. When told he was too ill front, they overthrew his liquidator instead.

The occasion for this intransigence was the first meeting of creditors of Bermuda Constructions, a family-owned builder placed into liquidation at the behest of its director, Philip Keith McDonald, 64 of Vaucluse and its shareholders, son Ben Robert McDonald, 32 and wife Jo-Ann.

After being referred to Jirsch Sutherland by their external accountant Peter Chu, the McDonalds met with partner Daniel Civil several times and he was appointed liquidator on March 1, 2016, with Otim Oluk as his right hand man.

For unspecified reasons, PKF had been engaged as the company's accountants from June 2015 and SiN understands PKF senior manager Sam Musgrave attended St Joseph's college at Hunters Hill with Ben McDonald. But in his Declaration of Independence, Relevant Relationships and Indemnities (DIRRI), Civil said the McDonalds were referred to him by Chu.

He detailed in his first report to creditors that Bermuda has debts in excess of $823,000. He said the McDonald family had told him it failed because of an unpaid debt owed to the company in the order of $100,000.

The family's lawyer - insurance specialist Ian Enright - was invited to read a statement to creditors. A dispute over a development in Mosman, they heard, had cost the company dearly. Keith and his family were "devastated".

Lord to lead Jirsch Sutherland's northern push

John Lord will lead  Jirsch Sutherland's
push north by opening a Brisbane office

SIFTING the harbour's revelatory silts recently, SiN learned that John Lord, the colourful Sydney liquidator who fell foul of ASIC a couple of years back, has joined Jirsch Sutherland.

Lord and the corporate regulator clashed a few years back in the wake of the Premium Collections affair.

Opting to relinquish his official liquidator status before ASIC got pushy, the former head of what was PKF's Sydney insolvency and restructuring division retired, pointed The Liquidator - his beloved aquatic pleasure vessel - north, and settled on the Gold Coast.

Now SiN hears Lord is set to open a Brisbane office, a move that represents a big step in Jirsch Sutherland's east coast expansion ambitions and a major comeback for one of the profession's more engaging characters.

Contact SiN