The Court of Appeal has decided an important question affecting choices around methods of debt enforcement. In ACC Loan Management v Rickard,1 it looked at whether a receiver by way of equitable execution can be appointed to receive future sums to which the debtor may become entitled.

The Supreme Court recently heard arguments in a patent dispute case, Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC. Although the case has nothing to do with bankruptcy law, its outcome could have a substantial impact on bankruptcy practice and litigation.

In a recent judgment, the High Court has held that unfair prejudice to an investment fund creditor under a proposed Personal Insolvency Arrangement should be assessed in light of likely investment returns and not the cost of its future capital needs.

The Supreme Court two years ago ruled in Baker Botts v. Asarco that bankruptcy professionals entitled to compensation from a debtor’s bankruptcy estate had no statutory right to be compensated for time spent defending against objections to their fee applications.

The Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in PEM Entities LLC v. Levin, in which it will decide whether federal or a state law should apply when a debt claim held by a debtor’s insider is sought to be recharacterized in bankruptcy as a capital contribution and treated as equity. The case raises important questions about the extent to which the commencement of a proceeding under the U.S.

In a recent judgment the Irish High Court for the first time confirmed as “good law” in Ireland the approach taken by the English courts to the circumstances in which a transaction, documented as a sale of receivables, may be re-characterised as a secured loan. Invoice discounting, factoring and similar receivables financing products are important sources of working capital finance for SMEs and are increasingly a funding tool offered by alternative lenders.

In a significant judgment, the High Court has held that there is no bar on a personal insolvency arrangement including a split-mortgage. The court also held that while a Personal Insolvency Practitioner is required to have regard to a creditor’s proposed solution for resolution of mortgage debt (eg a split-mortgage), the PIP will not be acting unreasonably by failing to adopt that solution and instead adopting another reasonable solution (eg debt write-down).

In Millenium Lab Holdings, Delaware District Court Judge Leonard Stark, on an appeal from a bankruptcy court order confirming a plan of reorganization, recently upheld a challenge to the bankruptcy court’s constitutional authority to release claims against non-debtor third parties under the plan.

The Irish Government has confirmed that the long-heralded Order to give effect to the “Alternative A” insolvency provisions of the Aircraft Protocol to the Cape Town Convention has been signed. While the Order has not yet been published, the Government announcement, made on 10 May 2017, states that the change in law has immediate effect.

Background

Judge Kevin Gross of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware handed down an important ruling last week that turned aside most of an unusual challenge to the fees and expenses of an indenture trustee in the long-running Nortel chapter 11 case. The dispute has been watched closely by financial institutions that serve as trustees on bond issuances. (Kelley Drye & Warren LLP represented a large creditor in the Nortel case but took no part in the issues discussed here).