Sea Voyager Maritime Inc. and Others v Bielecki, trading as Hughes Hooker & Company
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 29 July 1998 |
| Date | 29 July 1998 |
| Court | Chancery Division |
Before Mr Richard McCombe, QC
Chancery Division
Insolvency - creditor entitled to relief from voluntary arrangement
As the liability of an insolvent defendant to a third party was not transferred to the defendant's insurers by operation of section 1(4) of the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 1930 until the full extent of the defendant's liability had been established, a creditor was entitled to relief under section 262 of the Insolvency Act 1986 from the effects of any term of a voluntary arrangement which could have the effect of preventing him from proceeding to judgment for the full amount of any claim against the defendant which he would subsequently be able to recover from the defendant's insurers under the 1930 Act.
Mr Richard McCombe, QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the Chancery Division, so held in a reserved judgment granting an application under section 262 of the 1986 Act of the first applicant, Sea Voyager Maritime Inc, for a declaration that the voluntary arrangement approved by a meeting of the creditors of the respondent, Jacek Maciej Bielecki, held on January 19, 1998 unfairly prejudiced the interests of the first applicant as a creditor of the respondent.
His Lordship made further orders that, upon the supervisor of the arrangement undertaking through counsel to convene within seven days a meeting to be held not less than 14 days after giving such notice to consider a proposed variation of the voluntary arrangement:
(i) the question as to how, if at all, the court should exercise its powers under section 262(4) of the 1986 Act would be adjourned generally with liberty to restore;
(ii) the respondent pay three-quarters of the applicants' costs on this application, and
(iii) the supervisor would have liberty to apply to be released from the undertaking given above in the event that the first applicant was not prepared to agree to the terms of the proposals to be put to the proposed meeting.
Additional grounds for that application had been advanced by two further creditors, Navihouse SA and Everlend Shipping Co Ltd, although those contentions fell away for reasons not fully canvassed in argument.
Mr Stephen Davies for Sea Voyager Maritime; Mr Christopher Boardman for Mr Bielecki.
HIS LORDSHIP said that Sea Voyager Maritime had engaged the services of Mr Bielecki, the sole equity partner in Hughes Hooker &...
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