The Smart Meter Communication Licensee Administration (England and Wales) Rules 2020

Supplementary provisions as to dividend

72.—(1) In the calculation and distribution of a dividend the SMCL administrator must make provision for—

(a) any debts which appear to the SMCL administrator to be due to persons who, by reason of the distance of their place of residence, may not have had sufficient time to tender and establish their proofs;

(b) any debts which are the subject of claims which have not yet been determined; and

(c) disputed proofs and claims.

(2) A creditor who has not proved the creditor’s debt before the declaration of any dividend is not entitled to disturb, by reason that the creditor has not participated in it, the distribution of that dividend or any other dividend declared before the creditor’s debt was proved, but—

(a) when the creditor has proved that debt the creditor is entitled to be paid, out of any money for the time being available for the payment of any further dividend, any dividend which the creditor has failed to receive; and

(b) any dividend payable under sub-paragraph (a) must be paid before the money is applied to the payment of any such further dividend.

(3) No action lies against the SMCL administrator for a dividend, but if the SMCL administrator refuses to pay a dividend the court may, if it thinks just, order the SMCL administrator to pay it and also to pay, out of the SMCL administrator’s own money—

(a) interest on the dividend, at the rate for the time being specified in section 17 of the Judgments Act 1838, from the time when it was withheld; and

(b) the costs of the proceedings in which the order to pay is made.