On December 6, 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the appeal of Poonian v British Columbia Securities Commission, 2022 B

Between 1 April and 30 June 2023, there were 6,342 registered company insolvencies, which is the highest number of insolvencies since the second quarter of 2009, and a 9% increase on the previous quarter of 2023.

Background

In R (on the application of Palmer) (Appellant) v. Northern Derbyshire Magistrates Court and another (Respondents), the Supreme Court held that an administrator appointed under the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) is not an "officer" of the insolvent company under section 194(3) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of several conversion claims brought by the estate of a deceased account holder against a bank, holding that one of the conversion claims was time-barred, and that the estate did not have standing to pursue the remaining conversion claims as the alleged injury was not fairly traceable to the bank.

A copy of the opinion in Muff v. Wells Fargo Bank NA is available at: Link to Opinion.

In Bank of Montreal v. Iskenderov, 2023 ONCA 528, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that actions to set aside a conveyance under section 2 of the Fraudulent Conveyances Act are subject to the basic two-year limitation period under the Limitations Act, 2002 – not the ten-year period prescribed by section 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act.

The Law of 7 August 2023 on businesses preservation and modernization of bankruptcy law (the “Law”) will come into force on 1st November 2023. On 19 July 2023, the Luxembourg parliament finally adopted the related draft bill, after more than a decade since the first draft bill (n° 6539) was presented.

Dlouho očekávaný zákon o preventivní restrukturalizaci čeká na podpis prezidenta a v následujících dnech nabude účinnosti. Nabídne podnikatelům nové nástroje, jak zavčas řešit své finanční potíže a vyhnout se úpadku.

Dne 23. srpna 2023 schválil Senát návrh zákona o preventivní restrukturalizaci, kterým se značným zpožděním dochází k transpozici směrnice Evropského parlamentu a Rady (EU) 2019/1023 ze dne 20. června 2019 o restrukturalizaci a insolvenci („Zákon“ a „Směrnice“).

In an appeal involving a Chapter 12 bankruptcy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently affirmed that the borrower’s use of the 20-year treasury bond rate sufficiently ensured that the total present value of future payments to the lender over the plan period equaled or exceeded the allowed value of the claim.

A copy of the opinion in Farm Credit Services of America v. William Topp is available at: Link to Opinion.

On 19 July 2023, the Luxembourg parliament finally passed a new law to modernize insolvency law and preserve businesses, after more than a decade since the first draft bill (n° 6539) was presented.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently rejected a bankruptcy trustee’s avoidance and fraudulent transfer claims, holding that a debt purchase and sale agreement between a bankrupt debtor, its original creditor, and its new creditor was not avoidable because it did not qualify as a transfer of “an interest of the debtor in property.”

Specifically, the Seventh Circuit determined that the transaction had no effect on the bankruptcy estate and the Bankruptcy Code’s avoidance provisions played no role.