An order recognising South Korean insolvency proceedings involving a shipping company, which had the effect of staying the commencement of actions against the company, was varied so that parties who had contracted with a Korean ship operator could pursue claims against it in London arbitration1.
Background
On 1 April 2015, responsibility for consumer credit in the UK transferred from the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) to the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). A consequence of this was to replace the OFT’s Consumer Credit Act licencing scheme with the FCA’s authorisation scheme under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA”).
This Court of Appeal decision in (1)TopBrandsLtd(2) LemioneServicesLtdv (1) Gagen Dulari Sharma (2) Barry John Ward (as former liquidators of Mama Milla Ltd) (2015) is noteworthy as it underlines that the “illegality defence” is still in a state of flux and in need of clarification by the Supreme Court.
There have been a couple of cases in the last few months where the impact of changes to the details of the various registers at Companies House has been considered by a Court. This article considers the points of interest for lenders that arise out of those decisions
What use is an LP registration certificate?
Not much in the case of a certificate that relates to a limited partnership (one to which the Limited Partnership Act 1907 applies not the limited liability partnership variety).
The Court of Appeal has refused to allow a liquidator of a company that was the vehicle for a VAT fraud to rely on the defence of illegality in defending a claim for breach of duty under section 212 of the Insolvency Act 1986: Top Brands Ltd and others v Sharma (as former liquidator of Mama Milla Ltd) [2015] EWCA Civ 1140.
The English High Court yesterday sanctioned closure schemes of arrangement for The Orion Insurance Company PLC and The London and Overseas Insurance Company PLC, paving the way for the closure of these complex and long-running insolvencies stemming from 1994.
Speaking today, Hogan Lovells partner Joe Bannister said:
In September 2014 administrators were appointed over Strada restaurants (trading under SSRL Realisations Limited). The restaurant was tenant of a unit in a shopping centre in Bloomsbury.
The Insolvency Service published its quarterly statistics on company insolvency and individual procedures showing:
Introduction
We recently commented on a Scottish case involving dissolution, disclaimer and restoration (read our Law-Now here). There has now been an English case raising the same issues which on the face of it analyses the same provisions of the Companies Act 2006 (UK wide legislation) in a different way to achieve the same result.
The approach of the courts
Key Point
The High Court has given some guidance on the effect of an order to restore a dissolved company to the register where a secured creditor has rights against that company and there has been a disclaimer by the Crown.
Facts