Summary

Trustees in bankruptcy can often come up against challenges in dealing with obstructive bankrupts. A bankrupt might ignore communications and requests for interview, fail to disclose information about their assets, or provide partial cooperation which fails to offer any substantive assistance.

While the dust settles, and lawyers on both sides of The Channel scrutinise the UK-EU trade deal and consider the many legal issues not covered by the accord, The Netherlands is taking steps to assert itself as the most attractive restructuring market in Europe.

Re System Building Services Group Limited [2020] EWHC 54 (Ch)

Summary

A recent High Court ruling has considered the character and extent of directors’ duties in the context of insolvency.

In System Building Services, Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Barber (“ICCJ Barber”) considered, amongst other things, the nature of a director’s duties to a company and whether those duties survive the company’s entry into an insolvency process.

Global Corporate Limited v Dirk Stefan Hale [2017] EWHC 2277 (Ch) 

Summary

A recent judgment re-iterates the importance of carefully drafting a deed of assignment when assigning claims.

In Global Corporate, the liquidators of a company assigned certain claims by way of a deed of assignment to Global Corporate Limited (the “Assignee”). The Assignee (the Applicant in this case) then brought several claims against the company’s former director and shareholder.