The Supreme Court has handed down its highly anticipated judgment in the joint Nortel Networks/Lehman Brothers appeal.  The administrators of Nortel and Lehman Brothers entities had appealed against the Court of Appeal’s decision that Financial Support Directions (FSDs) issued by the Pensions Regulator (“the Regulator”) after the appointment of administrators attracted priority status as an administration expense.  Rejecting the decision of the lower courts, the Supreme Court ruled that an FSD issued during the course of an administration will rank as a provable debt rather than a

Summary

The Supreme Court has today allowed an appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal (14 October 2011) which, in certain circumstances in an insolvency situation, would have accorded “super priority” to a financial support direction made by the Pensions Regulator.

While the arrival of His Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge has dominated the British (and the world) headlines this week, the U.K. Supreme Court delivered its own long awaited bundle of joy earlier today. In the latest decision in the laborious Nortel and Lehman litigations, the U.K. Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision and held that pension claims should not be treated as priority claims and, instead, they should rank equally with general unsecured claims.

The Supreme Court has today ruled on the ranking of certain pension liabilities when issued to companies in administration or liquidation.

The Supreme Court yesterday issued its decision in the long-running case concerning financial support directions (“FSDs”) issued by the UK Pensions Regulator to various companies in the Nortel and Lehman groups. The case considered where a company's obligations under an FSD should rank in relation to its other debts if the company was insolvent when the FSD was issued.

Snapshot

The Supreme Court handed down its long-awaited judgment today in the Nortel/Lehman case on where a contribution notice (CN) or financial support direction (FSD) issued by the Pensions Regulator (TPR) on a company that is already in insolvency proceedings (eg administration) ranks in the order of priority of payment.

The Supreme Court handed down its decision yesterday on the combined appeals of Nortel GmbH (In Administration) ("Nortel") and Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (In Administration) ("Lehman Brothers") (together, the "Appellants") against the Pensions Regulator ("tPR").

On 6 June 2013, the Court of Appeal reversed the High Court’s decision in The Trustees of the Olympic Airlines SA Pension & Life Insurance Scheme v Olympic Airlines SA from May 2012.

Eastman Kodak is in the process of emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. A key part of the process has been the settlement of the $2.8 billion claim by Eastman Kodak’s UK subsidiary pension fund, the Kodak Pension Plan. This has involved the sale of 2 businesses to the Kodak Pension Plan for a total of $325 million in return for a discharge from liability to the Plan. These businesses were valued at $650 million.

HMRC has issued a consultation on the announcement in last year’s Budget to introduce legislation to restore HMRC’s position as a secondary preferential creditor in company insolvencies. This may impact upon pension schemes.