The High Court has rejected Michael Wymes’s application to show cause against his bankruptcy adjudication, finding that the statutory requirements had been met and that the application raised no new grounds for annulling it.
Ms Justice Pilkington delivered the judgment on 5 April 2019. The application was made under section 16 of the Bankruptcy Act 1988. The judge said it was properly before the court because Wymes filed it within the permitted period after being served with the adjudication order.
The court’s central question was whether the requirements in section 11(1) had been met, particularly the requirement that the act of bankruptcy occurred within three months before the petition was presented. Wymes argued that there had been no qualifying act within that period and challenged the validity of the petition on procedural grounds.
The judge found that the bankruptcy summons was issued on 15 February 2010 and served on Wymes on 1 March 2010. He did not pay the amount demanded within 14 days. The court therefore found an act of bankruptcy under section 7(1)(g), and that the petition, issued on 10 June 2010, was within the three-month period.
Wymes also argued that the petition failed to identify the act of bankruptcy properly and lacked the required supporting affidavit. The judge found that the petition recited the act and that two affidavits accompanied it. She concluded that the relevant court rules had been complied with.
Other matters raised in Wymes’s affidavit included claims that the debt was statute-barred, that the petition involved an improper purpose, and that the bankruptcy process was oppressive. The judge said those matters fell outside the scope of this application or had already been considered in earlier court proceedings. She stressed that an application to show cause is not an appeal from the bankruptcy adjudication and cannot simply repeat arguments already decided or introduce grounds that should have been raised earlier.
The court found no basis to exercise its discretion on just and equitable grounds. It refused the application and did not annul the bankruptcy adjudication made by order of Meenan J. on 23 March 2018.