Topic: Insolvency

Walden v Atkins [2013] EWHC 1387 (Ch)

In 1971 Michael Walden purchased a property from his grandmother and as part of the agreement she could live in the property for life.

In 1975 he verbally agreed to sell the property to his uncles Dennis and Maurice Walden for £15,000, with £8,000 of the purchase price left outstanding as an interest free loan repayable on the second of Dennis and Maurice to die. This was less than half the property’s actual value. Dennis and Maurice agreed that on their death the house would revert to Michael or his children if he had already died and in the meantime he would pay for all maintena...

Re MF Global UK Ltd [2013] EWHC 1655 (Ch)

MF Global UK (MFG UK) went into administration and, as a result, all client funds were pooled and needed to be rateably returned to MFG UK’s clients. This had to be done in a timely fashion. There were a significant number of client claims which the administrators had rejected either in full or partially. There were also likely to be a significant number of clients whose details did not appear among MFG UK’s records but who would also have a valid claim. These difficulties meant that any distributions from the pooled trust monies could result in an over-distribution and the a...

Hughmans Solicitors v Central Stream Services Ltd & anr [2012] EWCA Civ 1720

Hughmans Solicitors (Hughmans) appealed from the decision of Briggs J that a debt owed to Hughmans, secured by a charging order, did not enjoy priority over the rights of Central Stream Services Ltd (in liquidation) (the company) and its liquidator arising from a Tomlin Order.

Hughmans had applied for an order for payment of £19,000 from the proceeds of sale of 3 Tisdal Place, London (the property). Hughmans claimed to be entitled to the payment on the basis of a judgment debt secured by a final charging order against the property. The company and its liquidator claimed a prior s...

Re BXL Services [2012] EWHC 1877 (Ch)

BXL Services (the company) was a charitable company limited by guarantee. Owing to government cuts and a large pension deficit, it became insolvent and the directors resolved to place it into administration pursuant to para 22 of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 (the Act). No formal notice in the form prescribed by para 26(2) to Schedule B1 of the Act was given to the company itself. On one construction of the Act, this omission was fatal to the validity of the appointment. On a second construction, it was not an omission at all as such notice was not a requirement. On a third cons...

Re Longman (dec’d) [2012] EWHC 666 (Ch)

Mrs Elizabeth Longman (D) died on 18 April 2008, leaving the residue of her estate equally to six charities if they were in existence at the date of her death. One of the six was the International Bible Society (UK) (IBS). When the will was made, IBS was an unincorporated association, but it had incorporated in May 2007 by transferring all its assets to a new charitable company, IBS-STL Ltd. Clause 6.3 of D’s will (see para [2] of the judgment below) provided that if one or more of the named charities merged or ceased to exist her trustees could pay its share of the residue to a...