Insolvency

Following the death of Boris Berezovsky, court-appointed receivers applied to the court for an order directing that the sums which they would have to pay to the respondent third parties and their own costs and expenses in connection with the application should be paid out of the assets of B’s estate. The Chancery Division held that it should treat a receiver appointed by the court in relation to an application made by such a receiver against a third party in the same way as with litigants in other capacities such as a liquidator, a trustee or a personal representative who initiated proceedings against a third party. It was a basic principle of receivership that the receiver was entitled to be indemnified in respect of his costs and expenses. The receivers were entitled to indemnify themselves out of the assets of the estate to the extent of two thirds of the costs they had to pay one respondent. In respect of the other respondent, it would not be right to disallow any