Welcome to the Winter 2026 edition of Buddle Findlay's insolvency and restructuring update.
It has been a busy season for insolvency law, both here in New Zealand and abroad, and this edition reflects that. As always, our update aims to provide a selection of decisions and media updates that we think carry real practical significance for insolvency practitioners, and those advising them. This edition covers decisions touching on directors' standing, liquidators' personal liability, priority distributions in receiverships, mining royalties and arbitration, as well as the equal parts amusing and terrifying topic of AI hallucinations in court filings.
We begin with a first-of-its-kind decision clarifying that unbilled work in progress constitutes an "account receivable" under the Receiverships Act 1993, a development we expect will be welcomed by practitioners managing priority distributions in receiverships. We then cover the latest instalment in the Henderson and Walker saga, where the High Court confirmed that a liquidator who brings a claim in their own name will bear personal liability for costs if that claim fails.
We move offshore, with a Privy Council decision reinforcing the principle that directors without an economic interest in a company in liquidation lack standing to pursue claims on its behalf – a decision expressly informed by New Zealand's own statutory framework.
Looking further afield, we report on a Singapore Court of Appeal decision on arbitration clauses and winding-up applications, and two Australian decisions examining the vulnerability of mining royalties to extinguishment under DOCAs, an area of growing commercial relevance.
Our media matters section touches on post-insolvency claims against professional advisers following major corporate collapses, and the growing risks posed by AI hallucinations. We suspect this is already the subject of lively conversation in many practitioners' offices, and it serves as a timely reminder that however useful the technology may be, it demands careful oversight.
We hope you find this edition useful, and as always, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss any of the issues covered.