H460
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High Court of Ireland Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> High Court of Ireland Decisions >> AKEN Ltd -v- Maplewood Developments [2012] IEHC 460 (12 November 2012) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2012/H460.html Cite as: [2012] IEHC 460 |
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Judgment Title: AKEN Ltd -v- Maplewood Developments Neutral Citation: 2012 IEHC 460 High Court Record Number: 2012 496 COS Date of Delivery: 12/11/2012 Court: High Court Composition of Court: Judgment by: Laffoy J. Status of Judgment: Approved |
Neutral Citation 2012 [IEHC] 460 THE HIGH COURT [2012 No. 496 COS] IN THE MATTER OF MAPLEWOOD DEVELOPMENTS (IN VOLUNTARY LIQUIDATION) AND IN THE MATTER OF THE COMPANIES ACTS 1963 – 2009 BETWEEN AKEN LIMITED APPLICANT AND
MAPLEWOOD DEVELOPMENTS (IN VOLUNTARY LIQUIDATION) RESPONDENT Judgment of Ms. Justice Laffoy delivered on 12th day of November, 2012. The application
(b) if necessary, an order pursuant to Order 74, rule 71 of the Rules of the Superior Courts (the Rules) declaring the vote of National Asset Loan Management Ltd. (NALM) passed at the meeting of the creditors of the Company held on 28th August, 2012 invalid for the purposes of voting at the creditors’ meeting; and (c) in the alternative, a declaration pursuant to s. 280 of the Act of 1963 that the value of the security in respect of the Company’s assets held by NALM is €22,300,000 for the purposes of the liquidation. The factual background 4. The Company is an unlimited company which has been involved in residential property development. It is part of a group of companies known as the Moritz Group. The applicant has been described in the grounding affidavit of Michael Whelan Senior (Mr. Whelan) as a “connected company to the Company, in that both the Company and the applicant are part of the Moritz Group”. 5. It has been averred to by Mr. Whelan that the decision of the directors to wind up the Company was made after a protracted period of engagement by the Moritz Group as a whole with the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA). 6. The statement of affairs of the Company as at 28th August, 2012 prepared by the directors pursuant to their obligations under s. 266(3) of the Act of 1963 estimated the total assets of the Company at €80,650,000 and the total creditors at €378,234,349, resulting in a total deficiency of €297,584,349. The breakdown of the creditors as set out in the statement of affairs was as follows:
(b) the claims of preferential creditors (Collector General and redundancy) were estimated in the sum of €507,316; and (c) the claims of unsecured creditors were estimated in the sum of €42,883,085. 7. Although NAMA was named as a secured creditor in the statement of affairs, the true position was that it was NALM which had obtained an unopposed judgment in the sum of €70,201,729.18 against the Company in proceedings in the High Court (Record No. 2012/506S) on 31st March, 2012. The Company’s debt to NAMA is secured on four properties situate at Rathfarnham, Old Court, Celbridge and Brownestown. On 17th January, 2012, NALM appointed fixed asset receivers (the Receivers) over those properties on foot of the powers contained in the various deeds of mortgage and charge by virtue of which NALM has security over those properties. 8. At the creditors’ meeting, those present were informed that at the Company meeting it had been resolved to appoint Mr. Earl as liquidator. NALM, through its proxy, Mr. Neil O’Mahony (Mr. O’Mahony) of Eversheds, Solicitors, nominated Mr. Coyle as liquidator. As the minutes of the creditors’ meeting, which have been exhibited, disclose, before the appointment of the liquidator was put to a vote, Mr. O’Mahony addressed the chairperson of the meeting, Helen Gibbons of Noel Smyth & Partners, Solicitors for the Company, in relation to what is referred to in the minutes as NAMA’s debt. The minutes should obviously refer to the debt of NALM. In any event, the minute records that Mr. O’Mahony asked that the following be noted, and, in quoting from the minutes, I am substituting NALM for NAMA:
[Mr. O’Mahony] further said that on the value of NALM’s secured debt they would take same as the value the directors had put on it in the statement of affairs being €22,300,000. [The chairperson] asked [Mr. O’Mahony] to confirm that the unsecured portion of NALM’s debt was €47,900,000.” 9. The minutes go on to record that, after questions and comments from the floor, the chairperson dealt with Mr. O’Mahony’s request as follows:
11. The foregoing are the only facts which are relevant to the issues the Court has to determine. The affidavits filed on behalf of the Company and on behalf of NALM contain a considerable amount of factual material which, in my view, has no bearing on those issues and to which I have not had regard. 12. The core issue on this application is whether under either s. 267(2) of the Act of 1963 or Order 74, rule 71 of the Rules there is any basis on which the Court can interfere with the appointment of Mr. Coyle as sole liquidator of the Company in voluntary liquidation. I propose addressing that core issue first by identifying the relevant provisions of the Act of 1963 and the Rules and then applying them to the factual scenario which I have outlined. I will then address some ancillary issues raised on the application. 13. Certain issues have been raised by Mr. Coyle in relation to whether the application is in the proper form, namely: he is not named as a respondent to the notice of motion, although it was directed to him and served on him; where named as respondent, the Company is not described as being in voluntary liquidation; and it is queried how the Company is supposed to respond to the core issue. As will be clear from paragraph 2 above, I have treated the applicant and NALM as the real proponents on the application. The absence of the words “in voluntary liquidation” after the name of the Company appears as respondent was described as a typographical error, which I accept, because the Company is described as being in voluntary liquidation in the first line of the title. In any event, I have corrected that in the title to this judgment and will make an order amending the title. That is the only order I consider necessary in consequence of Mr. Coyle’s concerns. The relevant statutory provisions and rules on the core issue
15. Sub-section (1) of s. 266 mandates that a company which proposes to go into creditors’ voluntary liquidation shall cause a meeting of creditors of the company to be summoned within the time limits specified and the subsequent sub-sections deal with the advertising of notice of the meeting and other procedural matters. Of importance for present purposes is subs. (3) which provides that the directors of the company shall “cause a full statement of the position of the company’s affairs, together with a list of creditors of the company and the estimated amount of their claims be laid before the meeting of the creditors”. What it is important to emphasise about that provision is that what the company is required to do is to estimate the amount of the creditors’ claims. 16. Sub-section (1) of s. 267 provides as follows:
17. Sub-section (3) of s. 267, which was inserted by the Company Law Enforcement Act 2001, provides:
18. Returning to subs. (2) of s. 267, on a plain reading of it, where it is invoked and the Court determines that the appointment of the creditors’ nominee as sole liquidator should not stand, the remedy available to the Court is either to replace the creditors’ nominee by the company’s nominee, or appoint the company’s nominee as joint liquidator with the creditors’ nominee, or appoint some other person as liquidator. Section 267(2) does not envisage a contest between two different nominees of creditors. Previously, in Re Centrum Products Ltd. [2009] IEHC 592, I questioned whether the solution provided for in s. 267(2) could be applied in the type of situation which arises here, but on further reflection perhaps the way to view what happened on 28th August, 2012 is that the purpose of what could be perceived as a contest between two creditors’ nominees was to evaluate whether the creditors’ nominee, that is to say, Mr. Coyle, had the majority in value of the votes. 19. Part X of Order 74 of the Rules which deals, inter alia, with general meetings of creditors in a creditors’ voluntary winding up, contains a number of rules which have been canvassed by the parties on this application. I propose setting out what I consider to be the relevant rules in what I consider to be logical order. 20. Rule 69, which is headed “Votes of secured creditors” provides as follows:
22. The provision of the Rules which the applicant invokes as the basis of the second relief it claims is rule 71, which is headed “Admission and rejection of proofs for purpose of voting”. Rule 71 provides:
23. Counsel for the applicant referred the Court to s. 284 of the Act of 1963 which applies the bankruptcy rules in the winding up of insolvent companies. In particular, the Court was referred to the annotation on s. 284 in MacCann & Courtney Companies Acts 1963 – 2009 (at p. 550), and, in particular, the following commentary on secured creditors: “If a secured creditor realises his security, he may prove for the balance due to him after deducting the net amount realised and receive dividends thereon but not so as to disturb any dividend then already declared. If he surrenders his security for the general benefit of the creditors, he may prove the whole of his debt. He may at any time amend the valuation on proof upon showing that the valuation and proof were made bona fide on a mistaken estimate, but every such amendment shall be made at the cost of the creditor and upon such terms as the court shall order....” The point emphasised by counsel for the applicant is that, in order to be entitled to amend, the secured creditor must establish a mistake in the original valuation. 24. In my view, s. 284 is of absolutely no relevance to the core issue which arises on this application, because s. 284 concerns what happens after the liquidator is appointed, whereas this application is concerned with the procedural aspects of the appointment of the liquidator. There is a fundamental difference between what happens at a creditors’ meeting convened under s. 266 and what happens subsequently when the liquidator is adjudicating on the claims of the creditors in the context of distributing the assets of the company. The basis of the applicant’s appeal
(b) any security over and above that sum had been surrendered; and (c) once the Receivers appointed by NALM recover the sum of €22,300,000 from the sale of the assets secured in favour of NALM, any sums over and above would be for the benefit of the general unsecured creditors of the Company.
(ii) in the absence of such confirmation, an application to court to seek Mr. Coyle’s removal as liquidator on the basis of the vote having been improper and/or to determine the value of the NALM security was threatened. 27. The legal basis for seeking the reliefs sought in the notice of motion was asserted in the grounding affidavit by Mr. Whelan as follows:
28. Rule 69 is primarily concerned with identifying the entitlement of a secured creditor to vote in a liquidation after the liquidator has been appointed. It envisages the secured creditor having lodged with the liquidator a statement, as provided for in rule 72, setting out the value at which the secured creditor assesses his security. On the basis of the value of his security as set out in the statement certain consequences ensue for the creditor. 29. One such consequence is set out in rule 70, to which I have not alluded before because it has no direct relevance to the issue with which I am concerned. However, it is instructive in understanding what happens after the liquidator is appointed. Rule 70 provides that the liquidator may, within twenty eight days after the statement has been used in voting at a meeting require the creditor to give up the security for the benefit of the creditors generally on the payment of the value so estimated. However, there is a proviso in rule 70 to the effect that where a creditor has valued his security he may, at any time before being required to give it up, correct the valuation by a new proof and deduct the new value from his debt. So the position is that, even after the liquidator has been appointed, there is provision for the amendment of the valuation of the security in the formal statement. However, as expressly provided in rule 72, that rule has no application to a creditors’ meeting pursuant to s. 266. 30. There was no requirement before or at the meeting on 28th August, 2012 that NALM should submit a formal assessment of the value of its security to the Company. What NALM did, through its proxy, at the meeting was that it relied on the valuation of its security contained in the statement of affairs prepared by the directors in accordance with their obligations under s. 266(3). The totality of the Company’s indebtedness to NALM had been determined by the judgment obtained by NALM against the Company. The directors of the Company had valued the lands the subject of the security of NALM at €22.3m in the statement of affairs and, by so doing, they had valued the security of NALM at €22.3m. In my view, the directors of the Company cannot quibble that, for the purposes of voting at the creditors’ meeting, NALM put the same value on its security. Nor can the applicant, which is a connected company, quibble with the value put by NALM on the secured element of the Company’s debt to NALM. In my view, it is not open to any creditor of the Company to challenge that valuation, which NALM adopted on a reasonable and pragmatic basis. 31. As regards the position of the chairperson of the meeting, in my view, the chairperson acted in accordance with the powers conferred on her by rule 71 in admitting the balance of the debt due to NALM, after deducting the estimated value of the security, that is to say, €47,900,000 as the unsecured claim of NALM for the purpose of voting. Indeed, as was pointed out by counsel for NALM, there had been no assertion by the applicant at the meeting or, indeed, subsequently that the chairperson was wrong in admitting the unsecured claim in the sum of €47,900,000, although that is probably implicit in the applicant’s case, even if not articulated. 32. Accordingly, the applicant is not entitled to –
(b) an order pursuant to s. 267(2) of the Act of 1963 replacing Mr. Coyle by Mr. Earl, because I am satisfied that Mr. Coyle was properly appointed liquidator. Ancillary matters 35. The applicant also raised the issue of the validity of the proxy on behalf of NALM which was a general proxy granted by NALM to Mr. O’Mahony of Eversheds, on the ground of Eversheds’ previous involvement. In my view, NALM were perfectly entitled to appoint as a general proxy a member of the firm of solicitors which had acted for them in the litigation with the Company and on behalf of the Receivers. 36. It is appropriate to record that Mr. Whelan recognised that Mr. Coyle is a respected insolvency practitioner and that there was no criticism of him either personally or professionally. However, it was suggested that he was “significantly conflicted”. In my view there is no evidence that Mr. Coyle was significantly conflicted. Order |