The court was asked whether costs awarded against a company were costs in the winding up.
Held: Where a creditor has obtained leave of the court to bring proceedings against a company in liquidation, any costs to which the creditor would become entitled as a result of the successful prosecution of the proceedings would be payable out of the company’s assets in full.
The rationale for the estate costs rule lies in the fact that: ‘a company in winding up ought to be dealt with as a matter of course like any other litigant, and if an action be brought or resisted for the benefit of the estate, and that action be brought fruitlessly, or defended fruitlessly, then the estate, that is to say, the other creditors, ought, like everybody else, to be fixed with the costs to which they have improperly and unnecessarily put their opponent.’
Citations:
(1869) LR 8 Eq 94
Cited by:
Cited – In re Nortel Companies and Others SC 24-Jul-2013
The court was asked as to the interrelationship of the statutory schemes relating to the protection of employees’ pensions and to corporate insolvency.
Held: Liabilities which arose from financial support directions or contribution notices . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Insolvency, Company
Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.537946