Description
Lessons from the recent Supreme Court case David Browne Contractors v David Ross Petterson
Bret Gustafson, counsel for successful liquidator David Petterson, will discuss the Supreme Court’s decision. The case will be of specific interest for directors, insolvency practitioners and creditors alike, because it confirms the test for when a contingent creditor’s claim is a “due debt”.
Here is a summary of the case, that you may want to read up on before coming.
From 1999 until to April 2009 he was a partner at Kensington Swan, Solicitors, and, for three years, was the national head of the litigation department of that firm. In April 2009 he moved from practice as a barrister and solicitor to practice as a barrister sole. Bret retired from the Kensington Swan partnership and set up chamber a stones throw from the Auckland High Court. In April 2013 he moved his Chambers to the 31st Floor of the Vero Centre in Shortland Street.
Bret’s specialty area is commercial litigation with an emphasis on insolvency, securities, professional negligence (in particular valuers) and contractual disputes.
Bret has appeared as counsel in over 30 trials, appeared before the Court of Appeal on 8 appeals, and appeared and succeeded in two high profile cases in the Privy Council and the Supreme Court respectively.
Bret was also counsel for one of the named parties in the Wine box Commission of Inquiry that ran for more than a year.