Emma Beechey recently appeared in the High Court of Australia led by Stewart Maiden KC for the Respondent, PT Garuda Indonesia Limited (Garuda), successfully preserving Garuda’s foreign state immunity against a winding up application brought by aircraft lessors Greylag Goose.
The High Court dismissed the appeal in a 5:2 decision, finding that the exception in s 14(3)(a) of the Foreign States Immunities Act 1985 (Cth) was not applicable. Consistently with the decisions at first instance and in the Court of Appeal, the High Court found that the words “not immune in a proceeding in so far as the proceeding concerns … bankruptcy, insolvency or the winding up of a body corporate”, read in the context of the Act and the ALRC Report, do not apply where the body corporate that the applicant seeks to wind up is a separate entity of a foreign State.
The judgment can be found here.
The High Court’s summary of the judgment can be found here.
