Sunwing Vacation Inc & Ors v E-Clear (UK) Plc & Ors

Facts

Sunwing Vacations Inc and Vacances Sunwing Inc applied against E-Clear (UK) PLC, a company in voluntary liquidation, and its liquidators, Mr Cohen and Mr Nygate. The applicants sought an order that the company, through its liquidators, give disclosure and permit inspection of specified classes of documents in the company's possession. Their principal reason for wanting the documents was that they were engaged in an arbitration in Germany against two respondents: Deutsche Bank AG and Pago eTransaction Services GmbH. The application was made under sections 112 and 155 of the Insolvency Act 1986, section 112 permitting a creditor of a company in voluntary liquidation to ask the court to exercise a power it could exercise in a compulsory winding up, and section 155(1) conferring power to make such order for inspection of the company's books and papers by creditors as the court thinks just. The liquidators, represented by a solicitor of Field Fisher Waterhouse, maintained a neutral stance: they explained that constraints upon them meant they could not consent to the order, and they identified a number of matters of concern, but those concerns did not move them into opposition, and they did not invite the court to substitute its own view of how they should behave for their own. The matter came before Morgan J in the Chancery Division.