In Re FW Mason & Sons Ltd (in Liquidation) [2017] EWHC 1512, the company’s current liquidators were claiming against its former liquidators, (one of whom was represented by Dov Ohrenstein) for alleged misfeasance and were determined to try to prove dishonesty. The allegations were serious and while Mr Justice Morgan accepted that there might be a public interest in discovering whether there was dishonesty and whether it was systemic in the respondents’ firm, he was persuaded that it was not for the court to conduct a public inquiry solely on the issue of dishonesty where there was no longer any dispute about quantum. He said that the court’s role was to determine claims by one litigant against another and he rejected the current liquidators’ arguments that there was sufficient reason to allow the case to continue. Accordingly, the current liquidators were not allowed to pursue a 15 day trial.

The transcript of the judgment can be downloaded here.