Henderson’s pursuit fails over costs claim
Christchurch businessman Dave Henderson has taken a drubbing from a High Court judge over his efforts to claim legal costs from liquidator Robert Walker.
Henderson and Walker have been embroiled in numerous legal disputes since 2010 when Henderson’s company Property Ventures was liquidated.
Walker, as liquidator of several Property Ventures subsidiaries, had initiated an order banning Henderson from being a director of any company in 2012. But Walker abandoned the claim just before it was due for trial on February 12.
Henderson said this meant he had been successful and was therefore entitled to costs.
Henderson told the court that Walker had acted inappropriately on numerous occasions while undertaking the liquidations, and claimed Walker was trying to leverage against him in other legal proceedings.
Henderson’s claim would have amounted to a few thousand dollars because he represented himself in court. ‘‘I accept that ordinarily Mr Henderson would be entitled to an award of costs,’’ Justice Graham Lang said.
However, a separate 2016 High Court ruling prohibited Henderson from running a business, being a director, or being employed by a relative without the court’s permission.
‘‘Mr Henderson has an unusually active history in both the criminal and civil litigation.
‘‘He has committed numerous offences under the relevant taxation legislation. Included among them are 25 convictions for PAYE offences entered on four earlier occasions and 12 convictions for other taxation offences on seven separate occasions …
‘‘Mr Henderson carefully structured his personal affairs both before and in the decade following his first bankruptcy [1996] so as to have no assets. But he provided personal guarantees for huge sums. Consequently those creditors entitled to call on his guarantees would almost inevitably receive no payment if the company-borrower defaulted.’’
Justice Lang ruled that Henderson and Walker would pay for their own costs.