Background
In a recent High Court decision, it was ruled that the liquidator not only failed in his application before the court, but in bringing forward an application that was 'doomed to fail', the liquidator was acting negligently and breached his duty of care to the company as liquidator. As a result, the liquidator was held personally liable for the costs of the application.
The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) has recently issued welcome guidance on how the impact of COVID-19 will be considered by the ODCE when evaluating potential restriction cases in respect of directors of insolvent companies – see here.
In a judgment delivered on 14 October 2020, the High Court, in refusing to appoint an examiner to New Look Retailers Ireland Limited (New Look Ireland) ruled that it was "entirely premature to consider the appointment of an examiner". New Look Ireland trades under the brand name "New Look" and operates across 27 stores in Ireland.
In the case of Wilson v McNamara [2020] EWHC 98 (Ch) the High Court of England and Wales (the Court) considered whether the EU principle of freedom of establishment requires that a pension held in another EU member state (Ireland) should be excluded from a bankruptcy estate under UK law in the same manner as a UK pension would be in a UK bankruptcy. Mr Justice Nugee decided in order to decide the case the Court needed to refer a preliminary reference to the European Court of Justice (CJEU) on a question of EU law.
The Revenue Commissioners have issued some recent welcome clarifications about certain provisions of the Government's temporary wage subsidy scheme.
Application for the Subsidy Scheme – An Admission of Insolvency?
The main provisions of the subsidy scheme are set out in Section 28 of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020.
That section also contains the criteria for an employer's eligibility to avail of the subsidy scheme. One such criterion is that:
Examinership A number of significant decisions were made by the High Court and Court of Appeal relating to different aspects of the examinership process in 2017. |
In Re Home Payments Limited (In Liquidation) [2013] IEHC 507, an application for directions was made by the Joint Liquidators of Home Payments Limited for the liquidators’ remuneration, costs and expenses to be discharged from customer accounts. Prior to its liquidation the company had operated as a nationwide household budgeting and bill paying company.
The Personal Insolvency Act 2012 was signed into law on 26 December 2012. As of 31 July 2013, all sections of the Act (save for Part 4 which relates to bankruptcy) had been commenced by ministerial order.
In our Spring Insolvency Update, we provided an overview of the main provisions of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012. Here we provide an update on some recent developments relating to the legislation.