The law of the State where an insolvency procedure is opened, applicable according to Art. 4, second paragraph, lett. m) of the Regulation (lex concursus), can be unenforceable pursuant to Art. 13 of the Regulation if according to the lawapplicable to the contract (lex contractus) the transaction cannot be challenged.

The case

The decision of the Court of Rovereto of 13 October 2014 and the Court of Bergamo of 26 September 2013 tookopposite stands on the issue of the allocation, for the purposes of the concordato preventivo proposal by the debtor, ofcash generated by future operation of the business following confirmation of the proposal.

The case

When a company is facing short term financial difficulties the directors or shareholders may decide to make a loan to the company to pay wages. 

Lawmakers amended again the “Marzano” version of the amministrazione straordinaria procedure,  in relation to the situation of ILVA S.p.A. based in Taranto. In particular, lawmakers extend the application to “undertakings of national strategic interest” some rules – which are also partially amended – already introduced for companies providing essential public services by Law Decree No.

Debts claimed in statutory demands must be due and payable to the creditor named in the statutory demand.

When disputing statutory demands it is common for debtor companies to argue an offsetting claim, so as to reduce or extinguish the amount claimed in the statutory demand.

For there to be a valid offsetting claim there must be ‘mutuality’, meaning that the legal capacities in which both the offsetting claim and the statutory demand debt are each claimed and owed must align.

Two recent decisions of the Tribunals of Ferrara (8 April 2014) and Palermo (9 June 2014) address some of the majorissues involved in group restructurings under Italian insolvency laws: conditions and features of a single “concordatopreventivo” procedure for all the companies of the same group

The Case

In a case where NCTM assisted the debtor, the Court of Appeals of Turin, with a decision of 17 April 2014, confirmed the most recent case law of the Court of Cassation limiting the power of the Tribunal to refuse confirmation to cases where, beyond doubt, the concordato is not economically feasible.

The case

The Tribunal of Naples, with a decision of 5 July 2013 in an interim proceeding, ruled that the Commissioner and the Judicial Liquidator can sue former directors for damages only if the claim (i) was included in the concordato proposal, or (ii) has grounds in tort, for facts entailing bankruptcy crimes.

The Case

In a recent decision, the Tribunal of Monza (23 October 2014) ruled that super-priority status can be denied if it is established that (i) professional duties were not properly performed or (ii) the concordato proved to be useless or detrimental for the creditors.

The Case

In the Schmid case the European Court of Justice ruled on the issue of jurisdiction of the Courts of a Member State ofthe EU where an insolvency procedure was commenced, whose receiver started a claw-back action against a defendantdomiciled in a non-Member State

The Case