The Court of Como, by order of 27 May 2015, authorised the Judicial Liquidator to settle the dispute with  the lawyer who advised the company in the concordato preventivo procedure, and this even against the advice of the Creditors’ Committee.

The case

With the decision of 16 September 2015, No. 18131, the Court of Cassation settled a long-standing debate, ruling that the trustee can not terminate an agreement to sell real estate property, entered into by the company which is later declared bankrupt, if the purchaser has registered with the Land Registry, before bankruptcy, its claim to the Court to be transferred title to the property.

The case

In Stevensdrake Ltd v Hunt and others ^[1] the liquidator of Sunbow Limited, Mr Hunt, had brought a claim against Sunbow's former administrators. Mr Hunt entered into a conditional fee agreement (CFA) with the solicitors instructed to pursue the claim (Stevensdrake). The CFA stated "if you [Mr Hunt] win your claim, you pay our basic charges, our disbursements and a success fee". A settlement was agreed but one of the former administrators failed to pay the agreed sum.

The definition of a contract for the sale of goods under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (SOGA) is one in which the seller transfers the property in the goods to the buyer for money consideration, i.e. the price.

Under section 49 of SOGA, an unpaid seller can claim for the price of the goods if either: (1) the property in the goods has passed to the buyer; (2) or payment of the price is expressed to be payable on a certain day irrespective of delivery

In Brooks and another v Armstrong ^[1], joint liquidators applied for orders against directors of the insolvent company (the Company) under section 214 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (the Act) (the wrongful trading provision) and for remedies to be awarded against delinquent directors under section 212 of the Act.

On 1 April 2015, an estimated 5,000 private landlords across Liverpool were affected by the implementation of a city-wide selective licensing scheme. Whilst Liverpool is the first major city to introduce the scheme city-wide, several local authorities have adopted selective licensing for their boroughs including the London Boroughs of Newham, Hackney, Croydon and Brent. 

The Tribunal of Modena with a decision of 6 June 2015 stated that a supplier can not refuse to perform its obligation and ask for the payment of previous claims by raising a non-fulfilment of the debtor’s obligations objection. Payment of such claims can then be made only after confirmation of the concordato by the Court.

The case

The Tribunal of Milan, with a decision of 5 May 2015, ruled that Art. 104-ter of the Italian Bankruptcy Law is applicable to the lease of business entered into before the declaration of bankruptcy and, therefore, the receiver can terminate pending contracts according to Art. 72 of the Italian Bankruptcy Law

The case

With the decision of 2 September 2015, No. 17461, the Court of Cassation confirmed that secured creditors’ deferred payment amounts to a partial satisfaction and has confirmed the criteria for determining the economic loss arising out of the delay, for allowing these creditors to vote.

The case

Lawmakers made a few changes to the concordato rules with the foreseeable result of restricting significantly the access by debtors to the procedure, shifting the main focus  from  liquidation  plans  to schemes allowing to preserve the business as a going concern

New rules introduced upon conversion of Art. 4 of law decree No. 83/2015