Vol 22 (2025) - Issue 5

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Lennon v Health Care Resourcing Group Limited [2024] EWHC 3034 (Ch)

Synopsis
The English High Court (the ‘Court’) held in Lennon v HCL Social Care Limited that a voluntary liquidator of a company, HCL Social Care Limited (‘HCL’), should pay over to that company’s parent, Health Care Resourcing Group Limited (‘HCRG’), a business rate rebate which had been paid to HCL by the City of London Corporation (the ‘Corporation’) where HCRG had made the initial business rates payment to the Corporation.
In doing so, the Court applied a restitutionary analysis, suggesting that this analysis might be applied to widen the ambit of the rule in Ex parte James (Re Condon Ex parte James (1873-4) LR 9 Ch App 609) while acknowledging that the rule per se applies only to officers of the court and so cannot be relied upon directly against a voluntary liquidator.
The liquidators were able to recover part of the costs of the application from HCRG pursuant to a Berkeley Applegate order.