Personal Liability of Judicial Managers and Receivers under the Companies Act: Powdrill v Watson [[1995] 2 WLR 312]

By express statutory provision under the Companies Act, personal liability is imposed on judicial managers and receivers of companies under certain circumstances in respect of transactions into which they case the company to enter. Adoption is a concept that has given rise to much litigation in England. In Powdrill v Watson the House of Lords, after a series of controversial decisions in the lower courts, finally had the opportunity to address the question of when a contract of employment is 'adopted' by an administrator or administrative receiver of a company and the consequences of such adoption.