The High Court has found that a borrower's debenture granted to a lender in respect of certain internet protocol (IP) addresses was a floating charge.

The High Court has held that certain assets sold by a company around the time of its administration were subject to a fixed charge rather than a floating charge and as such, the sale proceeds were not to be distributed to preferential creditors or unsecured creditors: Avanti Communications Ltd, Re [2023] EWHC 940 (Ch).

In the context of a trade finance dispute, the High Court has considered the contractual interpretation of an irrevocable letter of credit incorporating the commonly used code in the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits 600 (UCP 600), published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). In particular, the court held that the issuer’s interpretation of the letter of credit would, in practice, render the instrument revocable, which was inconsistent with the UCP and therefore not the proper construction.

The Board of the Privy Council has allowed an appeal in relation to the application of the so-called “reflective loss” principle, confirming that the rule falls to be assessed as at the point in time when a claimant suffers loss and not at the time proceedings are brought Primeo Fund v Bank of Bermuda (Cayman) Ltd & Anor (Cayman Islands) [2021] UKPC 22.

The Court of Appeal has struck out Quincecare duty and dishonest assistance claims brought by the liquidators of a company running a Ponzi scheme against a correspondent bank that operated various accounts for the company.

On December 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA), the omnibus funding bill that makes consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021. The CAA also provides various forms of economic relief to address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of its coronavirus response, the CAA includes a number of amendments to the Bankruptcy Code. The key amendments are addressed below.

Temporary statutory protection of certain arrearage repayments under forbearance arrangements

Commercial bankruptcy practice in the United States is governed by Chapter 11 of title 11 of the United States Code. The focus of Chapter 11 is assisting a distressed company to reorganize its debts to emerge as a going concern or liquidate its assets as part of an orderly wind-down. In this article, we highlight the key benefits available to a Chapter 11 debtor and describe the various stages of a case, including statutory requirements, and types of plans.

The High Court has recently considered a number of questions of contractual construction in the context of guarantees: Barclays Bank plc v Price & Ors [2018] EWHC 2719 (Comm). 

The economic value of IP rights in US bankruptcy proceedings has risen rapidly. Due to Congress's unique view of trademark licenses, appellate courts are increasingly divided on the ability both of debtor-owners to freely reject them, and of licensees to continue to use them. In In re Tempnology LLC,1 the Supreme Court has been asked to provide much-needed certainty on these issues.

The recent Court of Appeal decision inLBI EHF v Raiffeisen Bank International AG [2018] EWCA Civ 719 affirms the wide discretion of the non-Defaulting Party to determine "fair market value" in accordance with the close-out mechanism under paragraph 10(e)(ii) of the standard Global Master Repurchase Agreement (2000 version) ("GMRA").