Re Globespan Airways: Administration, Liquidation and Registration

Re Globespan Airways Ltd (In Liquidation) also called Cartwright & Anor v The Registrar of Companies [2012] EWCA Civ 1159 (24 August 2012), read judgment.

The Court of Appeal (Lord Neuberger MR, Arden and Moses LJJ) has unanimously held that it was not possible for an administrator of a company to convert administration into a creditors’ voluntary liquidation (CVL) by simply giving a conversion notice to the Registrar of Companies  (“the registrar”) because conversion only occurred once the registrar had registered a notice on the company’s file at Companies House.

In taking the above approach, the Court of Appeal has reversed Briggs J’s earlier decision that where a notice of movement from administration to CVL under Schedule B1 (“administration”) paragraph 83 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (“the IA 86”) was received by the registrar before the termination of the administration, paragraph 83(4) was to be interpreted as meaning that the date of receipt of the notice was the effective date of registration, regardless of whether the administrative steps necessary for registration had been completed.