Duties
In compulsory liquidation, the liquidator must assume control of all property to which the company appears to be entitled. The exercise of his powers is subject to the supervision of the court. He may be compelled to call a meeting of creditors or contributories when requested to do so by those holding above the statutory minimum.
In a voluntary winding-up, the liquidator may exercise the court's power of settling a list of contributories and of making calls, and he may summon general meetings of the company for any purpose he thinks fit. In a creditor's voluntary winding-up, he must report to the creditor's meeting on the exercise of his powers.
The liquidator is generally obliged to make returns and accounts, owes fiduciary duties to the company and should investigate the causes of the company's failure and the conduct of its managers, in the wider public interest of action being taken against those engaged in commercially culpable conduct.
A liquidator who is appointed to wind-up a failing business should act with professional efficiency and not exercise the sort of complacency that might have caused the business to decline in the first place.
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