On 25 July 2016, Insurance Ireland published a statement opposing the Department of Finance's recent recommendation that liabilities of any insolvent motor insurer should be assumed by the Insurance Compensation Fund. Insurance Ireland states this would and pose a systemic risk to the Irish motor insurance market.

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) has published its Annual Report for 2015.

Key Developments from the Report: 

This case¹ concerned a challenge to a High Court judgment which was entered against Mr Hanley for failure to repay monies borrowed pursuant to a loan agreement. Mr Hanley asserted that he had never received a letter of demand for repayment of the loan monies borrowed. The Court noted that the notice of demand went, in error, to another Mr Hanley that had no connection to the Defendant.

In Leahy v Doyle & anor [2016] IEHC 177, the High Court issued orders of restriction in respect of directors of two companies (Gingersnap and Scappa), under Section 150 of the Companies Act 1990 (now Section 819 of the Companies Act 2014). While the companies were different, the liquidator and the directors were the same.

Background 

In McAteer & anor v McBrien & ors [2016] IEHC 229, the High Court made an order restricting three directors pursuant to Section 150 of the Companies Act 1990 (now Section 819 of the Companies Act 2014).  The first named respondent (A) was the husband of the second named respondent (B) and father of the third named respondent (C) and all were directors of the Company on the date of the liquidation.

Background

In a pivotal decision released May 19, an Alberta court ruled in favour of Grant Thornton Limited, the Receiver and Trustee in the Redwater Energy Corporation (Redwater) receivership and bankruptcy proceedings, upholding its right to disclaim Redwater’s non-producing oil wells and sell its producing ones. Gowling WLG served as co-counsel to Grant Thornton throughout the proceedings.

The High Court (Binchy J), has recently made restriction orders in respect of directors in two separate applications before it.

36778   Ad Hoc Group of Bondholders v. Ernst & Young Inc. in its capacity as Monitor et al.

(ON)

Commercial law – Bankruptcy and insolvency – Interest

As solar industry observers will already know, on April 21st, 2016, (the “Filing Date”) SunEdison, Inc. (“SunEdison”) and several of its U.S. and international subsidiaries (the "SunEdison Group") filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (the “Chapter 11 Proceedings”)in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “ US Bankruptcy Court”).¹

In Murphy -v- O'Flynn & anor [2016] IEHC 197 a liquidator sought an order from the Court restricting William and Deirdre O’Flynn from acting as directors pursuant to Section 150 of the Companies Act 1990.

Applicable Law