The company contributories petitioned for the restoration of the company so that they could get in a sum of money standing to the credit of the company’s account at a building society.
Held: Fairness required that the restoration should be on terms that time should not run during the period of dissolution against creditors whose claims were not statute-barred at the date of dissolution whose claims were not statute-barred at that date: ‘…. what I have to do is put all other persons – not only the company, but all other persons – in the same position as nearly as may be as if the name of the company had not been struck off. At the date of the dissolution, the creditors …. who were not statute-barred at the date of dissolution …. could have stopped the statute running by issuing, possibly serving, a writ. [Counsel for the petitioner] contends that the creditor could also have applied to restore the name of the company to the register and then have issued his writ. Of course he could, but that is not the same position, nor is it, in my judgment, the nearest that can be done to get to the ‘as-youwere position’; and it seems to me that, when a company has been dissolved and therefore nobody can sue it without getting it restored to the register, it is only common fairness that, if the contributories for purposes of their own, want to get it restored to the register years afterwards, the period [of dissolution] should be disregarded for the purposes of the Statute of Limitations. …. Common justice requires that some such provision should be inserted.’
Judges:
Roxburgh J
Citations:
[1956] 1 WLR 1397
Cited by:
Cited – Whitbread (Hotels) Ltd and Another v Walkmore (95) Ltd OHCS 4-Jan-2002
Where application was made to restore a company to the register, to face court action, the court should look at the issues of limitation, and at how any delays had arisen.
Held: The court should be aware of the potential prejudice created by . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Company, Insolvency
Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.183436
