Whether insurer liable to repay purchasers’ deposits following dissolution of developer/policy interpretation
On 21 October 2013, the financially troubled company Hainan PO Shipping applied for bankruptcy and winding up before the People’s Court of Hainan Yangpu Economic & Development Zone (“Yangpu Court”). The Yangpu Court approved the application on 31 October 2013, and the Court has since nominated the administrators of Hainan PO Shipping.
A December 2012 ruling has effectively called into question the validity of engine leases in Denmark. Ruling in relation to the bankrupt regional airline Cimber Sterling, a judge in the District Court of Sønderborg ordered the trustees of the estate to return seven of the nine engines in question to the engine lessors. However, the two remaining engines, both GE CF34s valued at around USD 2 million each, were to be retained by the trustees as on the date of bankruptcy they had been affixed to the Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft for over three months.
A recent decision of the Federal Court of Australia has found that the arrest of vessels pursuant to existing security rights, such as maritime liens under Australian admiralty legislation, have priority over cross-border insolvency applications under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency.
Introduction
The Court of Appeal recently handed down its much-anticipated judgment in (1) Jetivia S.A. (2) URS Brunschweiler v Bilta (UK) Limited (in liquidation) (2013).
The Supreme Court has ruled that Financial Support Directions issued by the Pensions Regulator against insolvent companies can be claimed as provable debts in the insolvency process. The previous decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal that they were to be paid as insolvency expenses have been overruled.
The decision was handed down in the Court’s judgment on the latest appeal in the long-running Nortel and Lehman saga, which arose out of a grey area in the elaborate statutory system for the funding of defined benefit pension schemes.
The Supreme Court may revisit two of the many questions left open by its much-discussed decision in Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct. 2594 (2011), an opinion famous not only for its subject – the estate of the late actress and model Anna Nicole Smith – but also for redefining the allocation of judicial authority between an Article III federal district court and a bankruptcy court. Appellants have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Executive Benefits Insurance Agency v.
A recent decision by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York1 found that a UCC-3 termination statement filed on behalf of a secured creditor was not effective because it lacked the proper authorization.
The Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York held recently that § 550 of the Bankruptcy Code does not limit the potential recovery on fraudulent transfer claims to the amount of unpaid creditor claims against a debtor’s estate. According to the Court, the language in § 550(a) that states that a plaintiff in an avoidance action can recover the property transferred or the value of the property “for the benefit of the estate” provides a “floor” rather than a “ceiling” on recovery.