The Court of Appeal has reversed the High Court’s decision in Healy Holmberg Trading Partnership v Grant on a PPSA issue it describes as being of “practical significance”. 

Receivers cannot escape personal liability on contracts they cause the company to enter into simply because all of the company’s assets have been paid out.

So the Court of Appeal found last week in a decision which explored the application of limitation of liability clauses where, as is common practice, the liability is limited to the “available assets” of the company.

Recent decisions from the courts have raised the legal risk for directors and underlined the exposure to third party liability of auditors, trustees and promoters. 

As a result, we can probably expect this year to have more claims made by receivers, liquidators and out-of-pocket investors against those involved in: