Farepak Food and Gifts Limited [2007] 2 BCLC 1, [2008] BCC 22
Administration - Liquidation
Jonathan Lopian has been acting for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in this high profile case over the past 2 years, concerning the administration and subsequently the liquidation of the Christmas hampers company. HMRC was appointed by the Court to represent the interests of the company's unsecured creditors. The other parties involved are the administrators / liquidators who sought to make a distribution to the former customers of the Company and a representative customer / agent. The first hearing raised complex issues of trust law and agency law and the Court accepted HMRC's submissions that in the absence of further relevant evidence no distributions could be made. Subsequently Jonathan has been involved in advising HMRC on the further evidence that has been obtained by the Liquidators, culminating in a further hearing in January 2009 at which the Court finally sanctioned the making of distributions though on a much reduced scale than that originally sought by the Liquidators.