Creditors of a Manx-registered company that went into liquidation seven years ago have been told their claims for unpaid wages can be considered after all.

Global Steel Holdings Limited (GSHL) was put into compulsory liquidation by order of the high court in May 2018.

A total of 13 claims brought by ex-employees in Nigeria had been rejected by the joint liquidators on the basis that they were made outside the six-year time limit.

The claimants appealed against the joint liquidators’ decisions - and for some the high court has ruled in their favour.

In a judgment, Deemster Andrew Corlett said in eight of the cases, there was no doubt the claims were statute-barred and correctly rejected.

But he said the position of the other five was different.

He said in each of these cases their employment appears to have ended less than six years before GSHL went into liquidation.

‘It seems to me therefore that arguably some part of their salaries accruing after this date is not statute barred and that their proofs of debt should not have been wholly rejected by the joint liquidators,’ he said.

GSHL was far from solvent, the court heard.

The joint liquidators has also submitted that in any event some of the appeals should be dismissed because they were not brought within 21 days.

But Deemster Corlett said it seemed ‘unduly harsh’ to reject the appeals on the ground that they were filed out of the time - and used his discretion to extend the time limit.

The joint liquidators will now give further consideration to these claims which total $313,557.

He added: ‘Naturally, this court has sympathy with claimants who were working for GSHL in distant foreign countries and who were, it seems, assured by that company that they would eventually be paid.

‘However, this court can only apply the law as it stands.’