19 I am unable to accept the Administrators' submission that they have a present entitlement to payment of the Administrators' Costs out of two funds, i.e. the Corporate Assets and the Scheme Assets, and that they therefore have a discretion as to how they may apportion those Costs between the funds.
20 I accept that the Administrators are, through their administration of Trio, administering funds of which Trio is trustee and that, for the purposes of the principles discussed in Re Berkeley Applegate and Re Sutherland, they are in the same position as liquidators of a company which is a trustee. However, as ACT Super correctly submits, the administrator or liquidator of a corporate trustee does not have an immediately enforceable right of recoupment for fees and expenses out of the trust funds. Rather, where the terms of the trust instrument, or the trustee's fees recoverable out of trust assets under the trust instrument, are inadequate to provide sufficiently for the costs and expenses of the administrator or liquidator, the administrator or liquidator may appeal to the Equity Court's inherent jurisdiction in the administration of trusts to seek allowance for remuneration and expenses out of the trust assets, where it appears clear that the remuneration and expenses are for work done for the benefit of the trust. Whether the administrator or liquidator is granted such an allowance out of trust assets is a matter in the Court's discretion, having regard to all the circumstances of the case: see e.g. Re Berkeley Applegate at 50H; Re Sutherland at [11]-[16].
21 In this regard, and with the greatest respect, I am unable to agree, without some explanation, in the sentiment expressed by Campbell J in Re French Caledonian Travel at [211]:
"Even though a liquidator needs to go to court to have it established that he has a right of remuneration from trust assets for work done in administering them, that right is one which is not accorded the liquidator in the exercise of some kind-hearted discretion of the court, but is accorded to him in accordance with equitable principle. The liquidator's right to receive such a payment, when the factual circumstances are made out, is every bit as much a matter of legal right as is a solicitor's 'fruits of the action' lien ( Firth v Centrelink (2002) 55 NSWLR 451), or a provisional liquidator's lien over property he or she has preserved ( Shirlaw v Taylor (1991) 31 FCR 222). As Lord Browne-Wilkinson said in Foskett v McKeown (at 109):
' … The rules establishing equitable proprietary interests and their enforceability against certain parties have been developed over the centuries and are an integral part of the property law of England. It is a fundamental error to think that, because certain property rights are equitable rather than legal, such rights are in some way discretionary. This case does not depend on whether it is fair, just and reasonable to give the purchasers an interest as a result of which the court in its discretion provides a remedy. It is a case of hard-nosed property rights.' "
22 With the greatest respect, I think that the passage quoted from Foskett v McKeown is taken rather out of context. That case was not concerned at all with a trustee's recoupment of fees and expenses from trust property but, rather, with the equitable rules of tracing misappropriated trust property.
23 While the recoupment of fees and expenses by the administrator or liquidator of a corporate trustee out of trust assets may properly be regarded as an equitable proprietary interest or right after the Court, in the exercise of its discretion, has granted the application for recoupment, I do not think that the administrator or liquidator has any such enforceable right or interest before the Court grants the application. This is in accordance with the authorities, such as Re Berkeley Applegate at 51-52, which speak of the Court's discretion to allow costs and expenses out of trust assets as one which is "sparingly exercised", or exercised "in exceptional cases": and see the authorities cited by Campbell J in Re Sutherland at [11].
24 The Administrators' application for recoupment out of Scheme Assets has, to date, been granted only to the extent permitted in Order 2(a) of the Consent Orders made on 5 March 2010. That Order permits recoupment of Remuneration and Expenses out of Scheme Assets only "in the event that the assets of Trio (i.e. the Corporate Assets) are insufficient" to pay them. The terms of the Order do not permit the Administrators, in their discretion, to decide the sequence of payments of various liabilities out of Corporate Assets so as to bring about a situation in which Scheme Costs of Impaired Schemes will be paid out of Corporate Assets but the Scheme Costs of Unimpaired Schemes will be paid out of Scheme Assets. Whether the Scheme Administrators can structure payments so as to bring about that result is the very question reserved by Order 4 of the Consent Orders.
Should the Administrators' proposal be accepted?