In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that if a company acting in its capacity as director of another company is liable based on a wrongful act (onrechtmatige daad), Dutch law provides that the natural persons who were acting as directors of that director-company at the time the liability arose are jointly and severally liable.

De Wet civielrechtelijk bestuursverbod voorziet kort gezegd in de mogelijkheid voor de rechtbank om in geval van faillissement een (oud-)bestuurder of feitelijk beleidsbepaler van een rechtspersoon voor maximaal vijf jaar te verbieden een bestuursfunctie of een functie als commissaris te bekleden.

The acknowledgement of a claim interrupts the five years’ prescription period for claims for payment (art. 3:318 DCC). On 21 April 2017, the Dutch Supreme Court answered the question whether the conduct of one company can qualify as the acknowledgement of a claim by another company (ECLI:NL:HR:2017:755).

On June 26, 2017, the recast EU regulation on insolvency proceedings1 (the Recast Insolvency Regulation) came into force.

Existing Legislation

As from today, the Insolvency Regulation Recast (EU) 2015/848 will apply to insolvency proceedings commenced on or after this date.

The new Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 (SI 2016/1024) came into force on April 6, 2017 (the 2016 Rules). The 2016 Rules replace the Insolvency Rules 1986 (SI 1986/1925) and their 28 subsequent amendments (the 1986 Rules) and represent a continuation of the Insolvency Service’s recent efforts to modernize and implement policy changes under various pieces of primary legislation.

In its judgment of 9 December 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that once the debtor of a receivable has been notified of a right of pledge over that receivable, the holder of the right of pledge not only has the power to collect the amount due under the receivable but also is entitled to file for the debtor's bankruptcy if the debtor fails to pay this amount.

The qualification of a right as a 'right in rem' (zakelijk recht), within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation No 1346/2000 of 29 May 2000 on insolvency proceedings (the "Regulation") must be determined according to the law of the place where the asset concerned is situated and the right in rem must satisfy certain criteria set out in Article 5(2) of the Regulation.

On 29 March 2017, Advocate General Mengozzi rendered his opinion to the EU Court of Justice in the landmark case regarding the Estro pre-packed bankruptcy.

On January 17, 2017, a divided (2-1) panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Second Circuit) reversed the decision of the District Court for the Southern District of New York (Southern District) in the Marblegate litigation1 (Marblegate) with respect to the interpretation of Section 316(b) of the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 (TIA).