Lehman administrations extended again

In the case of one of the companies, the administrators sought: 

• (a) an extension of the administration for six months; and
• (b) in the same application, an order pursuant to paragraph 98(2)(c) of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 fixing the time of their discharge as administrators to take effect at the end of the administration as so extended.

The order in (b) was being sought six months in advance of the end date for the extended administration so as the extension and discharge could be dealt with in the same application thus avoiding the cost of a further application for discharge at the end of the administration.

The court ordered the six month extension and then considered the discharge application. The court held that there was no jurisdictional impediment preventing the making of such an order six months in advance of the end of the administration, but in the circumstances refused to make the order in view of the unexpected delays that had already been encountered in finalising arrangements with HMRC and the fact that the justification for the order was simply the saving of costs.

The court instead ordered that the application be stood over to be restored to the court and dealt with on the papers reasoning that costs should thereby be able to be kept down as only a short witness statement in support should be required assuming no significant change in circumstance.

In re LB UK RE Holdings Limited (in administration), Chancery Division, 25 November 2022