On January 13, 2023, the Supreme Court granted the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians’ Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to resolve the split of circuits on whether Section 106 of the Bankruptcy Code evinces Congress’ unequivocal intent to abrogate Native American Tribes’ sovereign immunity.¹

On 28 October 2022, the High Court handed down judgment in the case of Alma Property Management Ltd v Crompton And Another [2022] EWHC 2671 (Ch).

In this case, the (freeholder) Claimant sought an order for specific performance of the (leaseholder) Defendants' repairing obligations under a lease of the common parts of a block of flats called North Tower in Manchester.

The Supreme Court has been given its first opportunity to “address the existence, scope and engagement of an alleged duty of company directors to consider, or to act in accordance with, the interests of the company’s creditors when the company becomes insolvent, or when it approaches, or is at real risk of, insolvency”. The corporate restructuring and insolvency community has been waiting for this “momentous” judgment with anticipation for the last 17 months.

The facts of the case:

Deepening a split of circuits, the First Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Bankruptcy Code waived the sovereign immunity of Native American Tribes. The May 6, 2022 opinion by Judge Sandra L.

Summary

On 21 March 2022, the High Court in Counsel General for Wales and others v Allen and others [2022] EWHC 647 (Ch) (Re Baglan Operations Ltd) modified the decision of the Official Receiver to allow the insolvent Baglan Operations Limited (in liquidation) (the 'Company') to continue trading for a period of time to prevent environmental harm to the locality.

We examine what impact the Court of Justice of the European Union decisions in Hampshire v PPF and PSV v Bauer will have on PPF compensation post-Brexit

Exploring the bounds of concreteness and traceability following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, the Sixth Circuit in Krueger v. Experian, et al. recently reversed a grant of summary judgment in favor of a lender in a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) case, finding that the plaintiff had a sufficiently concrete injury to support Article III standing.

Background

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA) came into force on 26 June 2020.

Schedule 10 of CIGA restricted the presentation of debt-related winding-up petitions where a company cannot pay its bills (including rent) due to COVID-19 in Great Britain.

These restrictions were initially due to end on 30 September 2020, but have since been extended until 30 September 2021.

The Current Position

The Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) was a forgivable loan program administered by the US Small Business Administration (“SBA”) that was created as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) in March 2020. The PPP ended on May 31, 2021. Since the passage of the CARES Act, litigation has ensued over whether companies in bankruptcy are eligible to receive PPP loans.

When a business is distressed and is due to run out of cash, advisors are often called upon to carry out an accelerated M&A process. Whilst there may be scope for the process to be run on a solvent (share sale) basis, it may need to be implemented on an assets basis, often via a formal insolvency process. Because of the undeniable threat of insolvency, directors of distressed businesses should obtain specialist legal advice on their duties at the earliest possible stage.

Board considerations