Mar 2012
BERMUDA
SUPREME COURT
COMPANIES – WINDING UP PETITION – JPLS’ STANDING TO BRING PETITION
Re Kingate Management Limited and the Companies Act, 1981, 2011 Commercial Court Jurisdiction No. 301 [original location: SC Vol. 76 p 232] (6 March 2012), is a case involving another round in the ‘Kingate’ litigation, a multiparty action commenced in 2009 after the Bernard Madoff collapse. The substantive case concerns whether subscription monies paid for shares in a now-insolvent Fund are repayable as a debt or held on trust for the would-be subscribers.
The recent application concerned the winding up of the named (related) company, which was sought by the Joint Provisional Liquidators (“JPLs”) or, in the alternative, by the Company itself (acting by its shareholders the directors having resigned). The Court took the opportunity to articulate the legal basis for jurisdiction under the Companies Act, 1981 and, more specifically, SS. 161 (grounds for winding up by the Court) and 175(1)(a) (applying to JPLs).