A secured creditor with a hypothec (charge) over a specific immovable property can enforce against that property without having to put the debtor through a full-blown bankruptcy process. That was one of the key outcomes of the Royal Court's decision in Representation of Prospect Holdings Limited[2025] JRC 164.
What happened?
Judge Parker of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas recently issued an order in the case of Hilltop SPV, LLC, granting debtor Hilltop SPV LLC’s (“Hilltop”) motion to reject a Gas Gathering Agreement (“GGA”) with counter-party Monarch Midstream, LLC (“Monarch”).[1] This decision allows Hilltop to reject the GGA while allowing Monarch to retain the covenants that run with the land post-rejection.
This briefing note provides an outline of the different processes of voluntary winding up and striking off under the Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (as amended) (the “Law”).
Voluntary winding up
Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P., 144 S. Ct. 2017 (June 27, 2024)
The Cayman Islands team obtained what may be the first instance of a permanent stay of an official liquidation of a Cayman Islands company.
Few would disagree that when a company is placed in official liquidation, that is the penultimate step before the company's death. Official liquidators will realise the company's assets and distribute them to stakeholders, before the company's eventual, but inevitable dissolution.
But does official liquidation have to be the end of the company? Can anything be done to halt the march towards dissolution?
1. Montague Goldsmith AG v Goswick Holdings Limited and Ors [2024] JRC 170
What happened?
11 U.S.C. § 1191(c)(2) provides (emphasis added):
- “(c) . . . the condition that a plan be fair and equitable . . . includes . . . (2) . . . all of the projected disposable income of the debtor to be received in the 3-year period, or such longer period not to exceed 5 years as the court may fix, . . . will be applied to make payments under the plan.”
There is little-to-no guidance in the Bankruptcy Code on what “as the court may fix” might mean. So, that meaning is left to the courts to decide.
Under 11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(2), an individual debtor may be denied a discharge, in its entirely, for making a transfer “with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud” a creditor or the trustee.
On April 17, 2023, the Bankruptcy Court for Eastern Michigan ruled:
A “silent” creditor in Subchapter V is one who does not vote on the debtor’s plan and does not object to that plan. The “silent” creditor is a problem for Subchapter V cases.
The Problem
Here’s the problem:
Here are a couple discharge-related bankruptcy questions I’ve heard of late, along with an answer.
Question 1. Why are individuals, but not corporations, eligible for a Chapter 7 discharge?
- §727(a)(1) says, “the court shall grant the debtor a discharge, unless—(1) the debtor is not an individual” (emphasis added).
Question 2. Why are individuals, but not corporations, subject to § 523(a) discharge exceptions in Chapter 11?