The High Court of Australia will hear an appeal by a syndicate of banks led by Westpac over a ruling by the Court of Appeal in Western Australia concerning the banks' disputed position as secured creditors of Bell Resources -  a company that went broke in 1990 and whose assets the receivers sold on behalf of the banks in 1992.The full bench of the High Court granted an application by the banks for special leave to appeal.In 2008, the Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled that the banks ranked as unsecured creditors. In a follow-up ruling, in 2009, the court ordered the banks to pay A$1.58 billion to the liquidator of Bell Resources.In August 2012, the Court of Appeal in WA rejected an appeal by the banks in relation to the 2008 and 2009 rulings.The Insurance Commission of WA estimates the amount repayable by the banks to the Bell Group's administrators to be between $2 billion and $3 billion.