Amantiss Enterprises Limited and Wilbury Limited were placed into creditors’ voluntary liquidation in 1994. Following the appointment of a liquidator, proceedings were issued by the two companies, together with a third company, Framus Limited, against a multitude of defendants including CRH plc, Readymix plc and Kilsaran Concrete Products Limited, alleging breaches of competition law.
In two cases decided towards the end of 2012, the High Court applied reductions to the hourly charge out rate of staff members employed by the liquidator who had been promoted during the course of the liquidation.
The Ward and Anderson families have been involved in the cinema business in Ireland for over sixty years. Several of the families’ principal cinema assets were operated through a jointly–owned company, Dublin Cinema Group Ltd (DCG). Following a number of disagreements over the years, including the bringing of a derivative action for alleged beach of fiduciary duty against one of the company directors, a petition to wind up the company was brought before the Commercial Court in January 2013.
The Minister for Justice and Equality has made an order providing for the commencement of certain provisions of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 with effect from Friday 1 March 2013.
The provisions to be commenced with effect from this date are as follows:
Legislation enabling the immediate liquidation of IBRC (formerly Anglo Irish Bank) was signed into law in the early hours of 7 February. Draft legislation was published on 6 February following media speculation that the Irish Government was preparing plans to liquidate IBRC and was promptly brought before both Houses of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). The Minister for Finance stated that immediate action was necessary in order to prevent any action being taken which could have put IBRC’s assets at risk.
A High Court judgment by Mr. Justice Richards handed down on January 29 has confirmed that a client’s open positions on trades, made with a firm regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) that subsequently enters into an administration or liquidation, should be valued by reference to the market value of the trades at the time of the firm’s failure rather than at the date the positions are closed out.
The Personal Insolvency Bill was signed into law by the President on 26 December 2012.
The Act provides for:
The Personal Insolvency Bill has completed its passage through the Dáil and the Seanad (the Irish Houses of Parliament) and will now be passed to the President for signing into law.
The new legislation has been described by the Minister for Justice as “the most radical and comprehensive reform of our insolvency and bankruptcy law and practice since the foundation of the State.”
It provides for:
An application by Quinn family members to have court-appointed receivers removed and their solicitors discharged on the basis of an alleged conflict of interest and partiality has been dismissed by the Commercial Court.
The Ninth Circuit recently held that: (1) bankruptcy courts lack the constitutional authority to enter a final judgment on all fraudulent transfer claims against non-claimants, whether brought under state or federal law, and (2) a defendant can waive such an argument by not asserting the applicability of Stern v. Marshall1 at the trial level.2 Further, in dicta, the court noted that bankruptcy courts may issue proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law in matters in which the bankruptcy court cannot issue final orders.