Re Orient Networks Holdings Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Cayman Islands
• Judge: (Henderson, J.)
• Judgment Date: 26 August 2005
• Court: Grand Court (Cayman Islands)
• Date: 26 August 2005

Grand Court

(Henderson, J.)

IN THE MATTER OF ORIENT NETWORKS HOLDINGS LIMITED

Ms. S.M. Corbett for the petitioners;

J. Tarboton for the Singapore liquidators.

Cases cited:

(1) Bradford Navigation Co. In reELR(1870), L.R. 5 Ch. App. 600, applied.

(2) North Australian Territory Co. v. Goldsborough, Mort & Co., [1893] 2 Ch. 381, applied.

Companies-liquidators-locus standi-no locus standi given in Cayman Islands to liquidator of Cayman company appointed by foreign court when Grand Court has itself appointed liquidator-appropriate to grant foreign liquidator status of amicus curiae

Liquidators, appointed by the High Court of Singapore, applied for standing in the winding up of a Cayman company.

The Grand Court appointed joint provisional liquidators, at the instance of creditors, of a Cayman company with assets and operations in Singapore. Two days later the High Court of Singapore appointed joint official liquidators of the same company at the instance of other creditors.

The applicants submitted that they were entitled to standing in the winding-up proceedings in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands as of right because they had a financial or legitimate interest in the outcome of the petition and now stood in the shoes of the company itself.

Held, refusing to grant standing:

(1) The two different sets of liquidators could not both have standing to represent the company in the winding up. The Singapore liquidators had the right and obligation, given by the High Court of Singapore, to get in assets, sell them off and distribute the proceeds pari passu to the creditors, but they had no legal entitlement to standing in the Cayman Islands. They could not, nor could the High Court of Singapore, make the ultimate order for the dissolution of the company, which could only be done by the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands (paras. 4–5; para. 8).

(2) The Singapore liquidators would be granted the status of amicus curiae on the petition, enabling them to make submissions and submit evidence, in particular concerning an alleged conflict of interest of the Cayman liquidators, with leave of the court. They would not, however, be liable to a costs order and did not have the panoply of procedural rights enjoyed by a party (paras. 6–7).

1 HENDERSON, J.: The applicants for standing in this proceeding have been appointed joint official liquidators of Orient Networks Holdings Ltd. by order of the High Court of Singapore on July 29th, 2005...