ADMINISTRATOR APPOINTMENTS CANNOT BE MADE OUTSIDE COURT HOURS BY E-FILING
In
Eason and another v Skeggs Beef Ltd [2019] EWHC 2607 (Ch) (5 October 2019);
and
Edwards and another v SJ Henderson & Company Ltd [2019] EWHC 2742 (Ch) (10 October 2019)
two High Court decisions considered respectively, the ability of a qualifying floating charge holder and an insolvent company’s directors to use the courts’ electronic filing system to file a notice of appointment of an administrator out of court hours.
The court in each case held that it is not possible for any party to effect an administrator appointment out of court hours by using the e-filing system but they differed as to the consequence for any appointment attempted in just this way:
In
Re Skeggs Beef
a High Court Judge held that a Qualifying Floating Charge Holder’s appointment that had been made online at 5.03 pm, after the court closed at 4.30 pm, was valid, though defective.
As there was no incurable substantial injustice the court held that the appointment was valid from the time it was supposedly made.
However in
Re SJ Henderson and Re Triumph Furniture,
the Insolvency and Companies Court held that any out-of-hours appointment, though on the facts this was a purported director appointment, made using the e-filing system had no effect and was not curable.
However, any such filing, if accepted and endorsed by the court during that out-of-hours period, would automatically take effect at the time the court next opened which is usually 10.00 am.
It is not clear if an appointment made by e-filing outside these hours will need to be actively validated through a court application, or whether it will be automatically effective from 10.00 am the following working day.
Kerry Underwood 
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