Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Re Harvest Finance: IA 1986 ss 234/236—overriding privilege for suspected fraud and no award of solicitors’ compliance costs (England and Wales)

Published on: 13 January 2015

Published by a LexisNexis Restructuring & Insolvency expert

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Article summary

Original news

Re Harvest Finance Ltd (In Liquidation); Jackson and another v Cannons Law Practice LLP and others [2014] EWHC 4237 (Ch); [2014] All ER (D) 216 (Dec)

Following relief obtained by the liquidators under the IA 1986, ss 234 and 236, the Companies Court considered whether it possessed the power to require payment of the costs incurred by the respondent solicitors in complying with an order to hand over papers and electronic material. The court concluded that, in the circumstances, it should, as a matter of discretion, refuse to allow the respondents to charge for the time expended.

What was the background to the application?

The applicants were liquidators of a company suspected of being used as a vehicle for a large-scale international fraud, involving loans secured on securities whose values appeared to have been artificially inflated. The respondents were a solicitors’ firm and individual solicitors who had acted (or, in an earlier guise, had acted) for many special purpose vehicles established to further the scheme under scrutiny. The application, brought under the IA 1986, ss 234 and 236, was, in essence, directed to the identification and recovery of documents within the respondents’ control and required...

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