24 February 2014
[2014] EWCA Civ 180
Court of Appeal (Patten, Lewison and Sharp LJJ)

The fact that rent payable in advance had fallen due prior to the tenant company entering administration did not prevent that that rent being payable an expense of the liquidation of the tenant company under the salvage/Lundy Granite principle.  The amount of rent so payable was a question of fact.

28 February 2014
[2014] EWHC 540 (Ch)
Companies Court (Etherton C)

When is a company’s property not its property?

10 February 2014
[2014] EWHC 229 (Ch)
Chancery Division (Etherton C)

A deputy registrar was wrong to dismiss a discharged bankrupt’s annulment application when the only creditor had decided not to prove for its debt.  The deputy register also erred in his approach to the TIB’s application to change the basis of his remuneration.

03 April 2014
[2014] EWCA Civ 383
Court of Appeal (Sullivan, McFarlane and Lewison LJJ)

Further guidance from the Court of Appeal on the meaning of insolvency and the relationship between the cash flow and the balance sheet tests.  A company that can only pay its debts as they fall due by incurring further debt is still insolvent. 

The courts have been busy in recent months considering various schemes of arrangement and reconstructions, including the following 4 unusual and high-profile applications.

In the matter of Co-operative Bank plc

18 December 2013

Companies Court (David Richards J)

[2014] EWHC 4397 (Ch)

21 January 2014
[2014] EWCA Civ 26
Court of Appeal (Arden, Sullivan and Davis LJJ)

Following suspension of IVAs, all creditors were bound by varied IVAs approved at a further creditors' meeting directed by the court, even if they had become creditors after the initial suspension.

07 March 2014
[2014] EWCA Civ 215
Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Patten, Lewison and Sharp LJJ)

The Court of Appeal, reversing the first instance decision, held that moneys paid to an agent after the agent’s insolvency were available for agent’s creditors generally and were not held on trust for the principal.

10 September 2013

[2013] EWHC 3351 (Ch) 

Companies Court, Chancery Division (David Richards J)

Company held to be insolvent despite limited recourse stipulations

The company ARM Asset Backed Securities (“ARM”) made an application to the High Court for the appointment of provisional liquidators, having already presented a petition for just and equitable winding up.

18 December 2013

[2013] EWCA Civ 1626

Court of Appeal (Rimer, Kitchin, Christopher Clarke LJJ)

Whether landlords' rights to seek specific performance of an agreement to surrender leases survived an intervening insolvency

16 December 2013

[2013] EWHC 4287 (Comm)

Commercial Court, Queen's Bench Division (Burton J)

Foreign trustee-in-bankruptcy personally liable for costs of restraining foreign insolvency proceedings, on an indemnity basis