In Tynefield Care Ltd (and others) v the New India Assurance Company Ltd1 the indemnity claims of the insured Claimant companies were dismissed, and policies avoided from inception for breach of the duty of fair presentation under the Insurance Act 2015. The breach related to the insolvency history of one of the de facto or shadow directors of the Claimant companies.
This judgment therefore adds to the post-2015 Act case law considering breach of the duty of fair presentation.
HFW DISPUTES DIGEST 2023
Welcome to the second annual Disputes Digest, in which we collate our 2023 global HFW LITIGATION and International Arbitration publications in one place.
This edition includes updates from across our Disputes arena, including England and Wales, BVI, AsiaPac, and the Middle East.
In a welcome clarification for administrators, the UK Supreme Court in the recent case of R (on the application of Palmer) v Northern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court[1], held that an administrator appointed under the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) is not an “officer” of the company for the purposes of section 194(3) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA).
In this client alert, we set out the key findings by the Court of Appeal in Darty Holdings SAS v Geoffrey Carton-Kelly [2023] EWCA Civ 1135, which considers an appeal against the High Court decision that a repayment by Comet Group plc (“Comet”) of £115 million of unsecured intra-group debt to Kesa International Ltd (“KIL”) was a preference under section 239 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (the “Act”).
Background to the Case
Whilst commonplace in the U.S., uptier transactions in which a borrower teams up with a subset of creditors to issue new “super priority” debt by amending or exchanging existing debt documents, have not been widely used in Europe.
However, with increasing macro economic pressures and financial market instability, we may see more European borrowers taking advantage of flexibility in cov-lite debt documentation to implement liability management transactions as an alternative to, or even as part of, more formal restructurings.
This week, the Ninth Circuit addresses whether text messages can violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s prohibition on “prerecorded voice” messages, and it considers whether debtors who paid statutory fees under an unconstitutionally nonuniform bankruptcy provision are entitled to a refund.
2023 has been a remarkable year with the past several months displaying an upward trend for the Business Restructuring + Insolvency Group at Morrison Foerster. We would like to provide our friends and clients with an overview of our current matters, each of which demonstrate our track record of being a go-to firm for complex restructurings across industries and jurisdictions.
COMMODITIES CASE UPDATE JULY 2023 HFW COMMODITIES CASE UPDATE JULY 2023 We are delighted to present the July 2023 edition of the Commodities Case Update, with a summary of 12 key recent cases relevant to the commodities sector. With a market leading commodities team, we have over 100 lawyers who provide a full service internationally. The group is led by a team of over 25 partners, who are based in all our offices around the world, including in the major trading hubs of London, Paris, Geneva, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney.
Summary
This week, the Court considers a property owner’s claim to an easement over a maintenance road on federal land, and casts doubt on the longstanding “person aggrieved” standing requirement in bankruptcy appeals.
KIMBALL-GRIFFITH, L.P. v. BRENDA BURMAN, ET AL
The Court rejects a property owner’s claim to an easement over a maintenance road on federal land.