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09 February 2012
Issue: 7500 / Categories: Case law , Law reports , In Court
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Conflict of laws—Insolvency—Foreign administrator

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Schmitt v Deichmann and others [2012] EWHC 62 (Ch), [2012] All ER (D) 177 (Jan)

Chancery Division, Proudman J, 23 Jan 2012

The court has an inherent common law jurisdiction to permit the statutory power under s 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) to be applied to a foreign administrator not falling within the express scope of the statute. 

David Marks QC (instructed by Dewey & Le Boeuf LLP) for the appellant. David Wolfson QC and Adam Rushworth (instructed by Kennedys Solicitors) for the respondents.

Phoenix was a German company carrying on business in Germany and elsewhere pursuant to contracts with individuals, including the appellants. Phoenix held all the money collected from investors in a single managed account. Phoenix represented that it was a trustee of the money which would be invested in the futures market. The claimant, the German administrator of Phoenix, alleged that the enterprise was loss-making from the start; all or most of the money invested was used to cover existing overheads and to pay fictitious

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