The Court of Appeal has resolved previously conflicting case law to confirm that a bankrupt cannot be obliged to crystallise his pension benefits in order to produce income to pay off creditors.

The recent Court of Appeal decision in Rawlinson and Hunter Trustees SA & others v Akers & another [2014] serves to emphasise that third party reports commissioned by liquidators to enable them to consider whether litigation should be commenced in order to make recoveries for the benefit of creditors will not always attract litigation privilege.

There have been a number of recent cases where companies have sought a reduction in their share capital by way of a High Court sanctioned process. One such case involving Aer Lingus raised interesting issues about the status of pension fund shortfalls as liabilities of the employer company as Emmet Scully and Jennifer McGuire report.

In a reduction of capital application, the High Court’s primary concern is whether the company’s creditors would be prejudiced by the reduction of capital.