On 29 June 2021, the Court of Appeal of Brussels handed down a decision in proceedings between the Republic of Kazakhstan (“Kazakhstan”), the National Bank of Kazakhstan (“NBK”) and four creditors (the “Creditors”).
In 2013, the Creditors had obtained an arbitral award ordering Kazakhstan to pay an amount of USD 508 million as compensation for damages suffered by the Creditors due to a harassment campaign led by Kazakhstan.
Het retentierecht dat reeds lang aanvaard wordt als een handig middel om alsnog betaald te worden, kreeg pas in 2018 een wettelijke basis met de nieuwe Pandwet. Onlangs kreeg het retentierecht nog een een steuntje bij van het Hof van Cassatie.
1. Waar gaat het over?
Het retentierecht is een handig middel voor schuldeisers die niet betaald worden en in het bezit zijn van een goed van hun schuldenaar.
General rule under the laws of England & Wales
As a general rule, a cause of action (also known as a “bare right to litigate”) may not be assigned under English law. Such assignment is deemed to violate the rules regarding champerty and maintenance, the common law principles which prohibit third parties from intermeddling with the disputes of others – be it or not in return for a share of the proceeds. An assignment of a cause of action is therefore void.
The Court of Cassation recently delivered an important decision regarding the accounting and tax treatment of debt restructuring operations performed by way of a debt-equity swap. Although the decision has the merit of being clear, its effective consequences are that tax will remain a key consideration for deciding whether to perform such operation. One may wonder whether that is sensible at a time when company groups may have to envisage such operations to save related entities from bankruptcy.
Debt waiver - Basic principles
Fidèle à sa jurisprudence, la Cour de cassation réitère sa position : de la seule fonction de dirigeant ne peut se déduire la qualité de caution avertie. En pareil cas, c’est à l’établissement de crédit de prouver qu’il s’est acquitté de son devoir de mise en garde lorsqu’il en est effectivement tenu.
On January 19, 2012, the Versailles' Court of Appeals confirmed that CMBS borrower, Heart of la Défense SAS (Hold), and its Luxembourg parent company, Dame Luxembourg Sarl (Dame), were entitled to Court protection in France under Safeguard Proceedings (sauvegarde). Safeguard is a French pre-bankruptcy process that resembles the U.S.
In France, when bankruptcy proceedings are instituted against a party involved in a pending arbitration it can result in conflicts between the applicable arbitration and insolvency rules. In that context, an arbitral tribunal sitting in France may be confronted with determining the extent to which they must defer to mandatory insolvency rules.
On March 8, 2011, France's highest court, the Cour de cassation, confirmed that CMBS borrower, Heart of la Défense SAS (Hold), and its Luxembourg parent company, Dame Luxembourg Sarl (Dame), were entitled to Court protection in France under Safeguard Proceedings (sauvegarde). Safeguard is a French bankruptcy process that resembles the U.S. Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession procedures, used most recently (and notably) in connection with the bankruptcies of General Motors and Lehman Brothers.
In early 2015, credit institutions gained the right to initiate the bankruptcy of their debtors according to a simplified procedure – i.e., without a court decision ordering the recovery of debt.
In practice there a numerous uncertainties in relation to civil liability of management bodies of companies, scope of such liability, and related matters. On 4 April 2017, considering the current situation, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania (the Supreme Court or SC) published the first overview of case law in relation to application of the norms of civil law regulating civil liability of management bodies of companies in the case law of the Supreme Court.