On October 14, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a long-awaited ruling on whether Ultra Petroleum Corp.

In Short

The Situation: Courts have disagreed over whether a make-whole premium triggered by a borrower's bankruptcy filing must be disallowed as unmatured interest. They have also disputed whether the "solvent-debtor exception" requiring the payment of postpetition interest to unimpaired unsecured creditors of a solvent debtor survived the enactment of the Bankruptcy Code. Finally, courts have split on what rate of postpetition interest unimpaired unsecured creditors of a solvent debtor are entitled to receive.

In Short

The Situation: Bankruptcy courts have split on what rate of post-petition interest unimpaired creditors of a solvent debtor are entitled to receive. Bankruptcy courts have variously ruled that such creditors were entitled to the contractual rate of interest, interest at the federal judgment rate (about the rate on a one-year Treasury bill) as of the bankruptcy petition date, or an equitable rate. Another possibility is that no interest is payable at all.

Key point

An assignee of future debts was bound by discounting and rebate arrangements concluded between the assignor and its customers despite having given notice of the assignment.

The facts

M supplied goods to customers. It factored its debts to Bibby in 2000. The Factoring Agreement provided that all future debts due to M by customers were to vest upon their creation in Bibby.

Bibby did the following to try and protect its position – ultimately the steps proved unsuccessful:

There have been a couple of cases in the last few months where the impact of changes to the details of the various registers at Companies House has been considered by a Court. This article considers the points of interest for lenders that arise out of those decisions

What use is an LP registration certificate?

Not much in the case of a certificate that relates to a limited partnership (one to which the Limited Partnership Act 1907 applies not the limited liability partnership variety).

Key Point

The High Court has given some guidance on the effect of an order to restore a dissolved company to the register where a secured creditor has rights against that company and there has been a disclaimer by the Crown.

Facts

Key point

The Joint special administrators of an investment banking entity succeed in obtaining a direction to allow them to distribute client assets quickly.

Facts

Key point

The Court of Appeal has recently given detailed guidance on what happens to the surpluses available in the insolvency of companies after dealing with an appeal in relation to the so-called Lehman Waterfall Application dealt with in an earlier Update.

Facts

Key Point

The ECJ has outlined how the protection afforded to a counterparty by Article 13 of the European Insolvency regulation works where an insolvency officeholder challenges a transaction governed by a law different from the one which applies to the insolvency of the estate generally.

Facts

Key Point

The Court of Appeal has overturned a first instance decision (discussed in our April 2014 Update) that the Companies Court should not normally make an order upon a winding up petition based on tax assessments that are under appeal.

The Facts