Companies Act 1948

Jurisdiction.

218 Jurisdiction to wind up companies registered in England.

(1) The High Court shall have jurisdiction to wind up any company registered in England.

(2) In the case of a company whose registered office is situate within the jurisdiction of the Chancery Court of the County Palatine of Lancaster or the Chancery Court of the County Palatine of Durham, the palatine court shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the High Court to wind up the company.

(3) Where the amount of the share capital of a company paid up or credited as paid up does not exceed ten thousand pounds, the county court of the district in which the registered office of the company is situate shall, subject to the provisions of this section, have concurrent jurisdiction with the High Court to wind up the company.

(4) Where a company is formed for working mines within the stannaries and is not shown to be working mines beyond the limits of the stannaries or to be engaged in any other undertaking beyond those limits, or to have entered into a contract for such working or undertaking, the court exercising the stannaries jurisdiction shall, whatever may-be the amount of the capital of the Company and wherever the registered office of the company is situate, have concurrent jurisdiction with the High Court to wind up the company.

(5) The Lord Chancellor may by order made by statutory instrument exclude a county court from having jurisdiction under this Act, and for the purposes of that jurisdiction may attach its district, or any part thereof, to any other county court, and may by statutory instrument revoke or vary any such order.

In exercising his powers under this section, the Lord Chancellor shall provide that a county court shall not have jurisdiction under this Act unless it has for the time being jurisdiction in bankruptcy.

An order made under this provision shall not affect any jurisdiction or powers vested in any county court under or by virtue of the [59 & 60 Vict. c. 45.] Stannaries Court (Abolition) Act, 1896.

(6) Every court in England having jurisdiction under this Act to wind up a company shall for the purposes of that jurisdiction have all the powers of the High Court, and every prescribed officer of the court shall perform any duties which an officer of the High Court may discharge by order of the judge thereof or otherwise in relation to the winding up of a company.

(7) Nothing in this section shall invalidate a proceeding by reason of its being taken in a wrong court.

(8) For the purposes of this section, the expression “registered office ” means the place which has longest been the registered office of the company during the six months immediately preceding the presentation of the petition for winding up.

219 Transfer of proceedings from one court to another and statement of case by county court.

(1) The winding up of a company by the court in England or any proceedings in the winding up may at any time and at any stage, and either with or without application from any of the parties thereto, be transferred from' one court to another court, or may be retained in the court in which the proceedings were commenced although it may not be the court in which they ought to have been commenced.

(2) The powers of transfer given by the foregoing provisions of this section may, subject to and in accordance with general rules, be exercised by the Lord Chancellor or by any judge of the High Court having jurisdiction under this Act, or, as regards any case within the jurisdiction of any other court, by the judge of that court.

(3) If any question arises in any winding up proceeding in a county court which all the parties to the proceeding, or which one of them and the judge of the court, desire to have determined in the first instance in the High Court, the judge shall state the facts in the form of a special case for the opinion of the High Court, and thereupon the special case and the proceedings, or such of them as may be required, shall be transmitted to the High Court for the purposes of the determination.

220 Jurisdiction to wind up companies registered in Scotland.

(1) The Court of Session shall have jurisdiction to wind up any company registered in Scotland.

(2) When the Court of Session is in vacation, the jurisdiction conferred on that court by this section may, subject to the provisions of this Act, be exercised by the judge acting as vacation judge in pursuance of section four of the Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act, 1933.

(3) Where the amount of the share capital of a company paid up or credited as paid up does not exceed ten thousand pounds, the sheriff court of the sheriffdom in which the registered office of the company is situate shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of Session to wind up the company:

Provided that—

(a) it shall be lawful for the Court of Session, if it appears to the Court having regard to the amount of the assets of the company expedient to do so, to remit to any sheriff court any petition presented to the Court of Session for winding up any such company or to require any such petition presented to a sheriff court to be remitted to the Court of Session; and

(b) it shall be lawful for the Court of Session to require that any such petition as aforesaid presented to one sheriff court be remitted to another sheriff court; and

(c) in a winding up in the sheriff court it shall be lawful for the sheriff court to submit a stated case for the opinion of the Court of Session on any question of law arising in that winding up.

(4) For the purposes of this section, the expression “registered office ” means the place which has longest been the registered office of the company during the six months immediately preceding the presentation of the petition for winding up.

221 Power in Scotland to remit winding up to Lord Ordinary.

The Court of Session may, by Act of Sederunt, make provision for the taking of proceedings in a winding up before one of the Lords Ordinary, and where provision is so made, the Lord Ordinary shall, for the purposes of a winding up, have all the powers and jurisdiction of the court:

Provided that the Lord Ordinary may report to the Inner House any matter which may arise in the course of a winding up.