If an agency agreement is resolved due to the agent being declared insolvent, the business owner must compensate the agent for clientele if the requirements under the Agency Act are met (the agent brought new clients or clearly increased transactions with existing clients, and the previous activity is still beneficial for the business owner). 

In its writ dated February 2, 2016, the First Instance Civil Court No. 38 of Barcelona raised a preliminary issue to the Court of Justice of the European Union. In that writ, it requested the EU court to determine whether the business practice of assigning or buying credits without offering consumers the possibility to settle the debt by paying the assignee the outstanding amount is in line with EU law.

There have been recent reports that APR Energy PLC has threatened the Australian Government with a demand for $200 million in damages based on a claim under the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement after it lost its security interest in multi-million dollar wind turbines it leased to an Australian company due to the operation of a provision in the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA).

On Friday 7 October 2016, McCullough Robertson successfully obtained orders on behalf of a US Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee, requiring payment to her of money held by the Public Trustee of Queensland (Public Trustee) on behalf of a US bankrupt and her former husband. As far as we know, this is the first time that the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (Model Law) has been used in Australia to obtain an order allowing the repatriation of funds to a foreign representative that are not the foreign debtor’s assets.

Last year’s Queensland District Court decision in Morton v Rexel Electrical Supplies Pty Ltd [2015] QDC 49 (Rexel) caused quite a stir in insolvency circles. In Rexel, Searles DCJ (a former partner of McCullough Robertson) found that section 553C of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Act) could apply to reduce an unfair preference claim brought by a liquidator, by allowing the amount still owing by the company to be set-off against the liquidator’s claim.

Last month former Kleenmaid director Bradley Young not so valiantly marched into the history books when found guilty of 17 charges of insolvent trading and one count of fraud after one of the longest criminal trials ever held in Queensland. This followed fellow director, Gary Armstrong, pleading guilty to two counts of insolvent trading and one count of fraud.

Shipping companies world-wide are suffering from depressed freight rates caused by years of weakening demand—particularly from China—as global trade has slowed. The latest casualty is one of the largest to date, South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping (Hanjin), the country's largest shipping firm and the world's seventh-biggest container carrier, which was placed into receivership by a South Korean court on Wednesday after its financiers ended financial support.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS

• Industry participants in the construction sector.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The deadline for comments on the Improving Bankruptcy and Insolvency Laws Proposals Paper is 27 May 2016.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

The NSW Supreme Court recently handed down its decision in Re HIH Insurance Limited (In Liq)^[1]. This long-running saga began with the collapse 15 years ago of Australia’s (then) second largest insurance company, HIH Insurance Limited, and has since seen a royal commission, the imprisonment of various senior management figures, and losses totalling more than $5 billion.

En los años de mayor crisis económica se dispararon las compraventas de unidades productivas autónomas en el marco de procedimientos concursales. La Ley Concursal regulaba estas compraventas permitiendo a los adjudicatarios reflotar un negocio minorando las cargas acumuladas hasta el momento del concurso.Uno de los debates en estas situaciones es el alcance de la responsabilidad de la empresa adjudicataria sobre las obligaciones laborales de los trabajadores afectos a la unidad productiva autónoma.