What happens if you assign your right to litigate to a person or company that is unconnected to the event that creates the right to litigate? In the recent Supreme Court case of SPV Osus Ltd –v- HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Ireland) Limited & Ors [2018] IESC 44, the Supreme Court held that this sort of transaction is void under Irish law and contrary to public policy.

Madoff ponzi scheme litigation

The government action bar provides that a relator may not bring a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit “based upon allegations or transactions which are the subject of a civil suit or anadministrative civil money penalty proceeding in which the Government is already a party.” 31 U.S.C. § 3730(e)(3) (emphasis added). Recently, in Schagrin v. LDR Industries, LLC, No. 14 C 9125, 2018 WL 2332252 (N.D. Ill.

On May 25, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court decision finding that producer Sabine Oil and Gas Corp. could reject certain midstream gathering contracts in its bankruptcy case.i

The Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the Bankruptcy Court) issued an opinion on April 9, 2018 recognizing and enforcing a scheme of arrangement that contained non-consensual releases of non-debtor subsidiary guarantors under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code. The Bankruptcy Court held that, in certain situations, such non-debtor releases may be approved and enforced in chapter 15 proceedings based upon principles of comity, even where similar arrangements would be impermissible in a chapter 11 proceeding. 

Costello J in the High Court recently gave judgment in the case of In re James Coady (a Former Bankrupt) [2017] IEHC 653. In this case the Official Assignee ("OA") had sought directions in respect of what rights could vest in the OA from the bankrupt's pre-retirement personal pension policy (the "PP"). The bankrupt had reached normal retirement age under the PP after he was adjudicated bankrupt but before he was discharged from bankruptcy.

Costello J in the High Court recently gave judgment in the case of In re James Coady (a Former Bankrupt) [2017] IEHC 653. In this case the Official Assignee ("OA") had sought directions in respect of what rights could vest in the OA from the bankrupt's pre-retirement personal pension policy (the "PP"). The bankrupt had reached normal retirement age under the PP after he was adjudicated bankrupt but before he was discharged from bankruptcy.

In Wingview Limited t/a Elphin Public House v Ennis Property Finance DAC the High Court granted an interlocutory injunction prohibiting the defendant from appointing a receiver over Elphin Public House, the Dublin pub which featured in the film "The Van" (1996).

The Court of Appeal recently ruled, in Re KH Kitty Hall Holdings & Ors, that an agreement to restructure and discharge the secured debts of a number of companies by selling certain secured assets was not a bar to the appointment of an examiner to those companies. This was the case despite the fact that the application for the appointment of an examiner was inconsistent with the obligations imposed on the companies under the restructuring agreement and was objected to by the secured creditor.

On September 1, 2017, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Federal Reserve) adopted a rule (the Rule)1 that will require global systemically important U.S. bank holding companies (U.S. GSIBs)2 and most of their subsidiaries to amend a range of derivatives, short-term funding transactions, securities lending transactions and other qualifying financial contracts (QFCs). The required amendments will limit counterparty termination rights related to certain U.S. GSIB resolution and bankruptcy proceedings.