Statutory Demands in the Court of Appeal: Macpherson v Wise [2011] EWCA Civ 399 (12 April 2011)

Lord Justice Patten has handed down his judgment in Macpherson v Wise [2011] EWCA Civ 399 (12 April 2011). The case concerns an application for permission to bring a second appeal against the Court's refusal to set aside a statutory demand dated 1st April 2010. The statutory demand related to a figure of £338,500. There is no new discussion of insolvency law in the case, but the facts make for interesting reading in relation to the use of statutory demands and the bankruptcy jurisdiction. As Patten, LJ notes at paragraph 7: "The application to set aside included various technical challenges to the statutory demand based on the way it was served but these are no longer pursued. The sole ground for the application is that the debt is disputed on substantial grounds. If this is right then the Court has power to, and will, as a matter of established practice, set aside the statutory demand leaving it to the parties to resolve that dispute in ordinary court proceedings: see Insolvency Rules r. 6.5(4)(b)." 

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