In this recession like no other, enforcement over complete and incomplete residential and other property developments is a common scenario faced by both bank and Insolvency Practitioner alike. The dilemma initially appears quite stark; Should the bank advance further monies to complete out developments in order to maximise realisations or sell the site "as is" to another developer but at a significantly discounted price? The purpose of this article is to consider the issues which warrant consideration before devising an enforcement strategy in relation to incomplete developments.

The Law Reform Commission (LRC) launched its Report on Personal Debt Management and Debt Enforcement, on 16 December 2010, at its Annual Conference. The Report makes 200 recommendations for reform, and also contains a draft Personal Insolvency Bill. Reform of personal debt law must be introduced next year to comply with the Government's agreement with the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.

Supreme Court Judgment (ex tempore), 20 February 2009

A return of no goods (nulla bona) no longer required for issue of bankruptcy summons

A decision of the High Court, affirming a rule of practice which required a return of no goods (or a good reason for the absence of same) before it would issue a bankruptcy summons to a creditor, has been successfully appealed to the Supreme Court.  

BACKGROUND

Courts have held that the Bankruptcy Code's avoidance powers do not apply extraterritorially, SIPC v. Bernard L Madoff Inv. Sec. LLC ("Madoff"),480 B.R. 501 (Bankr. S.D. N.Y. 2012); Barclay v. Swiss Fin. Corp Ltd., 347 B.R. 708 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 2006); Societe Generale plc v. Maxwell Commc'n Corp plc "Maxwell I"),186 B.R. 807 (S.D.N.Y. 1995) and others have found to the contrary, Weisfelner v. Blavatnik (In re Lyondell),543 B.R. 127 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2016); Sec. Investor Prot. Corp. v. BLMIS (In re BLMIS) , 513 B.R. (S.D.N.Y.

According to a ruling handed down recently by the Israeli Supreme Court, when a real estate asset is sold before the seller enters bankruptcy proceedings, and the seller has not paid the betterment tax, the local council is not obligated to grant the buyer approval for registering the property under his name. Thus, the buyer will be required to pay the betterment tax.

All’indomani della crisi sanitaria causata dall’epidemia di Covid-19 e delle conseguenti misure di lockdown, il Governo italiano si è trovato a dover adottare, tra le altre, le misure necessarie a conciliare l’esigenza di contenere la propagazione del virus con quella, altrettanto primaria, di garantire, nei limiti del possibile, il funzionamento della giustizia civile, penale, tributaria ed amministrativa sul territorio nazionale.

26 November 2013

[2013] EWHC 3689 (Comm)

Commercial Court, Queen's Bench Division (Burton J)

Foreign insolvency proceedings do not override arbitration agreements

The trustee of a large bankruptcy in Israel commenced proceedings in the Israeli insolvency court against Dr Bannai to recover assets (worth $150m) said to be due to the bankrupt under a 2002 agreement.  The 2002 agreement was governed by English law and contained a London arbitration clause which it was accepted covered the claims in question.

The Court of Cassation with a decision of 25 September 2017, No. 22274 confirms that Art. 74 of the Italian Bankruptcy Law provides a special rule, which does not apply to cases to which it is not explicitly extended

The case

With the decision No. 1649 of 19 September 2017 the Court of Appeals of Catania followed the interpretation according to which a spin-off is not subject to the avoiding powers of a bankruptcy receiver

The case

With two decisions (No. 1895/2018 and No. 1896/2018), both filed on 25 January 2018, the Court of Cassation reached opposite conclusions in the two different situations

The case