A winding-up petition was presented against the debtor by the first creditor and supported by the second creditor. The debtor complained that the witness statement verifying the petition had not been signed, in breach of rule 7.6 of the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016. In response the petitioner’s solicitors produced a witness statement verifying the facts and matters in the earlier witness statement. Relying on the earlier lack of verification, the debtor applied for the petition to be struck out, claiming that it was inherently defective. The judge found that no injustice had been caused by the irregularity and, applying the power under rule 12.64 of the 2016 Rules, held the petition was not invalidated. The debt having been paid, the district judge dismissed the petition and ordered the debtor to pay the creditors’ costs. The debtor applied for permission to appeal on the grounds that the petition was a nullity ab initio and that the district judge had wrongly exercised the power under rule 12.64.
On the application—
Held, application refused. Verification was an important part of the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 and it was difficult to conceive of circumstances in which the court would think it appropriate to make a winding up order if a petition had not been verified by a statement of truth, but that did not mean that the absence of verification made the petition a nullity ab initio. Accordingly, and since the district judge’s decision that rule 12.64 of the Insolvency Rules (England and Wales) 2016 applied and that the petition was not invalidated was plainly correct, the debtor had no realistic prospect of success on appeal (paras 24–27, 30, 39).
Clive Wolman (instructed by Harrison Carter) for the debtor.
Tom Gosling (instructed by Greenhalgh Kerr, Wigan) for the creditors.