Re Anglo-Austrian Printing & Publishing Union

Re Anglo-Austrian Printing & Publishing Union [1895] 2 Ch 891 is a UK insolvency law

UK insolvency law

United Kingdom insolvency law deals with the insolvency of firms and individuals in the United Kingdom. The important statutes are the Insolvency Act 1986, as amended by the Enterprise Act 2002, as well as the Company Director Disqualification Act 1986 and the Companies Act 2006.Insolvency is a...

and company law case, concerning recovery of assets under a misfeasance action.

Facts

An official receiver

Official Receiver

An officer of the Insolvency Service of the United Kingdom, the Official Receiver is an officer of the court to which he is attached. The OR is therefore answerable to the courts for carrying out the courts' orders and for fulfilling his duties under law...

was appointed to pursue the former directors of the Anglo-Austrian Printing & Publishing Union for misfeasance, and other funds. It recovered £7000 in damages for misfeasance and £1200 in calls on unpaid shares from former shareholders. However, a group of debenture holders had not yet been paid. They claimed the money recovered was theirs, given that it first went to the company on which they held charges, and could not be used to pay unsecured creditors before the debentures were paid off.

Judgment

Vaughan Williams J held, reluctantly, that money recovered during liquidation from in proceedings under section 10 of the Companies (Winding-up) Act 1890 and by calls on contributories, belong to debenture holders charging all the undertaking and property of the company, when total assets are not enough. Costs for such proceedings must be paid first out of money recovered in those proceedings.

Facts

Judgment

See also