Attorney-General v McMillan & Lockwood Ltd - [1991] 1 NZLR 53

Company law — Liquidation — Rights of unsecured creditors — Pari passu rule — Company contracted with Crown for subcontractors to prevail over other unsecured creditors with the intention of achieving an effect similar to the Wages Protection and Contractors' Liens Act 1939 - On liquidation the effect of certain clauses was indeed to defeat the pari passu rule — Whether the clauses were void because they infringed the pari passu rule — Whether the application of the pari passu rule was confined to a voluntary winding up — Whether the company had any property to which the pari passu rule could apply — Whether in order to determine whether a company could successfully contract out of the pari passu rule it was necessary to balance various public policy considerations — Companies Act 1955, s 293.