The defendants had obtained world-wide Mareva injunctions in support of substantive proceedings by way of their counterclaim to enforce an arbitration award against the plaintiffs under section 26 against two companies, Aiglon Limited and L’Aiglon SA (a Swiss company).
Held: There was no basis under section 26 for enforcement of the arbitration award against SA, but the question arose whether any other basis for a freezing order against SA existed, having regard to the fact that the defendants’ only contractual entitlement was against Limited. There were two bases. It was well arguable that a transfer of assets from Limited to SA fell foul of section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986, thereby giving the defendants a direct cause of action against SA as victims of the transaction. Second, since an administrator or liquidator of Limited (if appointed) could apply to set aside the relevant transaction under section 238 of the Insolvency Act 1986 with the consequence that SA would hold the assets transferred as trustee for Limited, the case fell within the Chabra jurisdiction since it was arguable that SA held assets beneficially belonging to Limited, against which the defendants had a good cause of action. It mattered not that Limited’s arguable beneficial interest in assets transferred to SA was contingent both upon the appointment of an administrator or liquidator of Limited, and the successful pursuit by the officeholder of a claim under section 238.
Judges:
Hirst J
Citations:
[1993] BCLC 1321
Statutes:
Arbitration Act 1950 26, Insolvency Act 1986 423
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – HM Revenue and Customs v Egleton and others ChD 19-Sep-2006
The claimants had applied for the winding up of a company for very substantial sums of VAT due to it. Anticipating that hearing, it now sought restraining orders against the director defendants, alleging that there had been a carousel or missing . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Litigation Practice, Arbitration, Insolvency
Updated: 01 July 2022; Ref: scu.245162
