Company - Director disqualification

- official receiver seeking to invoke insolvency regime to obtain disclosure of documents from company's solicitors and accountants for use in disqualification proceedings - no jurisdiction to grantIn re Pantmaenog Timber Co Ltd: CA (Lords Justice Kennedy and Chadwick): 25 July 2001Disqualification proceedings were brought against a former director of a company.The district judge, unaware that the sole purpose was to obtain evidence for the disqualification proceedings, granted the official receiver an order under section 236 of the Insolvency Act 1986 requiring former solicitors and accountants of the company to disclose documents in their possession in relation to the company and its transactions.Judge Weeks QC sitting as a High Court judge [2000] Gazette, 15 December, 36; [2001] 1 WLR 730 set the order aside.

The official receiver appealed.Jonathan Crow and Bridget Lucas (instructed by Osborne Clarke, Bristol) for the official receiver.

Stephen Davies QC and Hugh Sims (instructed by Beachcroft Wansbroughs) for the former director.Held, dismissing the appeal, that the court had no jurisdiction to grant an application by the official receiver to order production of documents in circumstances where the sole purpose of the application was to obtain documents for use as evidence in pending disqualification proceedings, because the official receiver could not invoke the powers conferred by sections 235 and 236 of the Insolvency Act 1986 to facilitate carrying out his separate role under section 7(3) of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 or to obtain evidence for use in disqualification proceedings of which he had conduct under section 7(1)(a) of the latter Act.

(WLR)