The Court directed under s 90-15 of the Insolvency Practice Schedule that liquidators were justified in treating Apollo Kitchens as the employer of 27 employees nominally employed by a related entity (Brownlen) that had no assets, no independent income, and was funded on an as-needed basis by Apollo Kitchens to cover wages. The Court inferred on the balance of probabilities that Brownlen acted as agent for Apollo Kitchens as undisclosed principal when entering employment contracts, relying on the absence of any standalone business purpose for Brownlen, the near-immediate pass-through of funds, shared policies, and contractual definitions of 'Employer' extending to related entities. However, the Court declined to make a declaration because there was no known controversy to quell and neither the 27 employees nor the 88 existing Apollo Kitchens employees (who would be financially disadvantaged) were parties or had been heard.
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