Re Wilmott Trading Ltd (No 2)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 08 June 1999 |
| Date | 08 June 1999 |
| Court | Chancery Division |
Chancery Division.
Before Mr Justice Neuberger
Waste disposal - dissolution of company holding licence - licence ceases to exist
On the dissolution of a company which was the holder of a waste management licence, the licence ceased to exist and did not vest in the Crown by virtue of section 654 of the Companies Act 1985.
Mr Justice Neuberger so held in the Chancery Division when granting a declaration to Neil Henry, liquidator of Wilmott Trading Ltd. The Environment Agency and the Crown appeared to make submissions as to why the declaration should be granted.
Section 654 of the Companies Act provides: "(1) When a company is dissolved, all property and rights whatsoever vested in or held on trust for the company immediately before its dissolution … are deemed to be bona vacantia…"
Mr Michael Driscoll, QC, for the Crown; Mr Roger Kaye, QC and Mr Stephen Moverley Smith for the Environment Agency; the liquidator did not appear and was not represented.
MR JUSTICE NEUBERGER said that earlier he had concluded that Wilmott Trading could be dissolved notwithstanding that it was the holder of waste management licence: (The Times April 28, 1999).
On that occasion his Lordship was unwilling to grant a declaration to the effect that on dissolution the licence would cease to exist.
Such a declaration would have been inappropriate in the absence of the Treasury Solicitor who might have wished to argue against the contention that the waste management licence might vest in the Crown as bona vacantia under section 654 of the 1985 Act.
His Lordship said that he was satisfied that the waste management licence held by a company did not vest in the Crown if the company was dissolved.
First, if that were not the position then the machinery envisaged by section 654 of the 1985 Act would override the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 governing the way in which licences
could be transferred or granted, in particular section 35(9) to (11) and section 40 of the 1990 Act.
In effect the likely result would a vesting of a waste management licence in a party over whom the Environment Agency would have no control and who might not be a fit and proper person within the meaning of section 74.
In In re Mineral Resources LtdUNK ([1999] 1 All ER 746) his Lordship concluded that where the insolvency legislation collided with the environmental protection legislation, the latter should prevail. It was...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Re Celtic Extraction Ltd ((in Liquidation))
...licence might be dissolved notwithstanding that its liquidator could not disclaim it. In the second, Re Wilmott Trading Ltd No.2 ( The Times 17th June 1999), Neuberger J decided that on the dissolution of a corporate holder of a waste management licence such licence ceased to exist. Neither......