A Company (Application to Strike Out)

Ms Nicola Allsop (instructed by Sloan Plumb Wood LLP) for the Petitioner Ms Morwenna Macro (instructed by JPP Law LLP) for the Respondent Hearing dates: 10 and 30 November 2021 ____________________

(1) It is for the company to demonstrate, with evidence, that its defence is genuine, serious and of substance. Bare assertion will not suffice.

(2) In assessing that evidence, the court should take a realistic view of whether the company is likely to establish a genuine and substantial dispute: Re Swan, para 11.

(3) It is open to the court to reject evidence because of its inherent implausibility or because it is contradicted by or not supported by documents. The mere fact that a party asserts that a thing did or did not occur, is not sufficient in itself to raise a triable issue. That evidence must inevitably be considered against the background of all the admissible evidence and material in order to judge if it is an allegation of any substance: Re Swan, para 12.

(1) the suggestion in Mr Waters' email of 19 October 2020 that the Petitioner's claims to be owed money by the Company came as a surprise, which Ms Allsop contended was demonstrably untrue, given that the Petitioner had raised the issue of the loan at a meeting in May 2020 and referred to that fact in his email of 15 October 2020;