Re Harris Simons Construction Ltd
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 1989 |
| Date | 1989 |
| Court | Chancery Division (Companies Court) |
Company - Administration order - Administrator, appointment of - Company unable to pay debts - Whether administration “likely to achieve” company's survival as going concern or more advantageous realisation of assets - Whether order to be made -
On an application for an administration order under section 8 of the Insolvency Act 1986F1 the court, in considering, under subsection (1)(b), whether an administration order is “likely to achieve” one of the purposes set out in subsection (3), the degree of probability involved must be such that there is a real prospect of achieving one or more of the stated purposes.
Where, therefore, there was a real prospect that an administration order would enable the whole or part of the company's undertaking to survive or at least would enable the administrator to effect a more advantageous realisation of the assets than in a winding up: —
Held, making the order, that without saying that it was more probable than not that one of the stated purposes would be achieved, an administration order offered the best prospect for preserving the company's future.
The following case is referred to in the judgment:
Consumer and Industrial Press Ltd., In re [
No additional cases were cited in argument.
Application
By their petition under section 9 of the Insolvency Act 1986, presented on 6 December 1988, the applicants, David Harris and Neil Harris, directors of Harris Simons Construction Ltd., builders and demolition contractors of 3–5, Bedford Row, London W.C. 1, stated that they believed that the company was unable to pay its debts as they fell due, and they had established that the value of its assets was less than its liabilities, and that an administration order would be likely to achieve (a) the survival of the company and the whole or some part of its undertaking as a going concern; and (b) a more advantageous realisation of the company's assets than would be effected in a winding up. They proposed that during the period for which the order was in force, the affairs, business and property of the company should be managed by Shirley Jackson, a partner in the firm of Begbie Norton and Partners of Cromwell House, Fulwood Place, Gray's Inn, London.
The application for an administration order and for the appointment of Shirley Jackson as administrator was made ex parte on 5 December 1988 accompanied by a draft of the petition. Hoffmann J., reserving the reasons for his decision, made an administration order, as prayed, and an undertaking was given to the court that the petition would be formally presented the next day, 6 December 1988.
The facts are stated in the judgment.
Matthew Collings for the applicants.
7 December. HOFFMANN J. handed down the following judgment. On Monday afternoon, 5...
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