Cases Insolvency & Restructuring
Judgment Date: 06 Jun 2022
Michael Gibbon QC and Maxim Cardew acted for the Official Receiver in Shop Direct Finance Company Limited v The Official Receiver [2022] EWHC 1355 (Comm) concerning bulk PPI complaints.
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Judgment Date: 05 Jul 2021
Third-party costs orders: who is the “real party” on an application for public examination under s.133 Insolvency Act 1986
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Judgment Date: 21 Apr 2021
The High Court considered the interplay between the Brussels Recast Regulation (“BRR”) and the approach of modified universalism to international insolvency proceedings in the course of continuing a worldwide freezing injunction, dismissing a jurisdiction challenge and ordering further disclosure and cross-examination in support of the worldwide freezing injunction. Although this will be one of the last ever cases concerning the BRR, it is an important reminder of the effect Owusu v Jackson [2005] QB 801 when a finding of domicile is made and would be of particular significance should the United Kingdom accede to the Lugano Convention.
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Judgment Date: 12 Feb 2021
In a judgment handed down today following a 10 week trial, Falk J dismissed the Official Receiver’s claim for the disqualification of the former directors (“the Trustees”) of the well-known charity Kids Company, which went into liquidation in 2015.
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Judgment Date: 07 Aug 2020
The Financial Conduct Authority's process of deciding whether to impose sanctions on a company (including the decision) was an "action or proceeding" within the meaning of the Insolvency Act 1986 Pt IV s.130(2). Accordingly, the court's leave was required before a warning notice could be given by the FCA.
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Judgment Date: 03 Jul 2020
Pursuant to the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 s.9A(1), once a court had found that a director's conduct was such as to make him unfit to be concerned in the management of a company, it had to make a disqualification order. Even though disqualification engaged ECHR art.8, the word "must" in s.9A(1) meant that the making of an order was mandatory.
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Judgment Date: 03 Jul 2020
The court determined the priority of competing claims under subordinated loan agreements and subordinated loan notes in the administration of two Lehman Brothers companies in which the claims of unsecured unsubordinated creditors had all been paid.
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Judgment Date: 27 Jan 2020
The Insolvency and Companies Court provided guidance on the purpose of applications for public examination under s.133 of the Insolvency Act 1986, the extent of the Court’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, the role of the Court on an application for directions and the role that the creditor requesting the examination plays in a disputed application. The Court also determined that the Official Receiver did not have the power to increase the deposit provided by the requesting creditor under the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 r.7.101(2). Caley Wright appeared for the requesting creditor.
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Judgment Date: 17 Apr 2019
The administrators of companies in the Cambridge Analytica group had not breached their duties in connection with the hearing for an administration order, nor had they misconducted themselves during the administration. They would be appointed as the companies' liquidators.
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Judgment Date: 12 Apr 2019
Where a bankruptcy order had been made against a barrister, fees due to them pursuant to an honorarium rather than a contract automatically vested in the trustee in bankruptcy.
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Judgment Date: 13 Mar 2019
Statutory interest payable on proven debts from a surplus in an administration under the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 r.14.23(7)amounted to "yearly interest" under the Income Tax Act 2007 s.874. The interest was therefore subject to deductions of income tax.
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Judgment Date: 13 Feb 2019
A tribunal judge had made a serious procedural error in finding that a bankruptcy petition was unopposed because the notice of opposition had been filed late, and that accordingly he had jurisdiction to hear the petition. He should have adjourned the hearing and transferred it to a specialist court, in accordance with CPR PD 57AA and CPR PD (Insolvency Proceedings).
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Judgment Date: 06 Feb 2019
A common law duty to have regard to creditors' interests could be triggered when a company's circumstances fell short of actual insolvency. Such a duty arose when the directors knew or should have known that the company was or was likely to become insolvent. In that context, "likely" meant probable.
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Judgment Date: 11 Jan 2019
Applications under the Insolvency Act 1986 s.423 to set aside a transfer of property were not struck out as an abuse of process where they had been brought subsequent to the determination of the issue of the validity of the transfer. The question of validity was separate from the issue of whether the transfer should be set aside. It was therefore not the case that the s.423 applications should have been brought as part of the earlier proceedings.
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Judgment Date: 08 Aug 2018
The court refused a bankrupt's application for permission to bring a claim against his trustee in bankruptcy pursuant to the Insolvency Act 1986 s.304, where there was no reasonably meritorious cause of action and where the proposed application raised issues which had already been decided against the bankrupt in an application under s.303.
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Judgment Date: 22 May 2018
In proceedings under the Insolvency Act 1986 s.423 for the recovery of a sum paid as a gift by a former banker to his son, the fact that the banker was aware at the time of the transaction that he was facing claims against his assets did not compel a finding that the transaction was entered into for the prohibited purpose of prejudicing creditors.
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Judgment Date: 20 Mar 2018
Two company directors were required to repay to joint liquidators payments which they had received from the company which they had failed to demonstrate had been lawfully paid by way of remuneration.
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Judgment Date: 08 Mar 2018
A bankrupt's claim for breach of contract and negligence against his trustee in bankruptcy was struck out under CPR r.3.4(2), on the grounds that the claim form disclosed no reasonable grounds for bringing the claim and that it was an abuse of the court's process.
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Judgment Date: 28 Feb 2018
The court construed the Limitation Act 1980 s.21(1)(b), which provided that no limitation period was applicable to actions by a beneficiary under a trust to recover trust property in the possession of the trustee or previously received by him and converted to his use. The mere fact that misappropriated trust property had remained legally and beneficially owned by corporate vehicles throughout the misappropriation, rather than becoming vested in law or equity in the defaulting directors, did not mean that s.21(1)(b) was inapplicable.
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Judgment Date: 25 Jan 2018
Vision 1 Ltd (2018)
Summary
The court interpreted agreements by which a video games development company had agreed to accept funding from a loan company, secured by various charges. In particular, it determined that the funder had no security or other proprietary interest in monies in the company's bank accounts, derived from tax credits.
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