Cross-Demand in Different Capacity

In Re A Debtor (No 87 of 1999) Debtor v Johnson (Ch D TLR 14 February)

The claimant, in her personal capacity, served a statutory demand on the debtor which the debtor sought to have dismissed on the grounds of a cross-demand against the claimant in her capacity as executrix of her late husband’s estate. The district judge had been wrong to refuse to exercise his discretion under rule 6.5 of the Insolvency Rules 1986 which did not debar such a cross-demand. Neither was there anything in CPR Part 20 which indicated that a claimant suing personally could not be made the object of a counterclaim against her in some different capacity. That was especially so since there was no such rigidity under the old regime.