The facts of the case are as follows. A company, Wolfson Informatica B.V., had been declared bankrupt on 4 September 1992 and Hamm was appointed its curator in bakruptcy by the district court. About ten months later the curator received a letter from the tax collector which stated that Wolfson Informatica B.V. had a right to restition of 12.069 guilders. Included with the letter was a standard return-form requesting Wolfson Informatica B.V. to indicate how they wished to receive this money. On 4 August 1993 the curator sent the completed return-form to the tax collector and by the end of August the money had been transferred to the company's bank account. However, the letter sent by the tax collector on 4 September 1992 was sent on account of an error in personam. The letter was meant for the parent company Wolfson Group B.V. and not for Wolfson Informatica B.V. In a letter dated 12 October 1993 the tax collector notified the curator about the mistake and requested repayment of the 12.069 guilders. However, the estate of the bankrupt contained too few assets to pay all the expenses of the bankruptcy. The curator accepted that the claim had the same priority as the expenses of the bankruptcy (“boedelschuld”)(priority over concurrent claims and even over most preferred claims), but no priority over the other expenses of the bankruptcy, and thus refused to repay the sum to the tax collector. The tax collector raised an action in the Rotterdam district court claiming payment of 12.069 guilders from the curator. (in his capacity as such) together with interest thereon. Furthermore he sought declarator (verklaring voor recht) that his claim against the estate for undue payment had to be paid in full from the available assets in priority to all the other creditors of the bankrupt estate (including the expenses of the bankruptcy). The Hoge Raad admitted the action.
European Review of Private Law