Ongoing innovation of the Belgian insolvency law : change of the current law and a new proposal for a European bankruptcy Directive !
Insolvency law in Belgium will be subject to a lot of change, through the transposition of two consecutive directives of the European Union and the implementation of the case law of the European Court of Justice. The first changes in the law are imminent. The main tendencies of the upcoming evolution are explained in the contribution below.
This half-yearly update summarises significant insurance coverage cases in the English courts in the second half of 2022 concerning Covid-19 business interruption insurance, jurisdiction and rights against insurers of insolvent companies.
Significant Insurance Coverage Cases in H2 2022
Covid-19 BI Cases:
This week, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, unanimously holding that a debtor cannot discharge a debt obtained by fraud even if the debtor himself/herself did not personally commit the fraud.
In the case of State Bank of India v. Moser Baer Karamachari Union & Ors., the Supreme Court of India (“Supreme Court”) has upheld the order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”) in the matter of State Bank of India v. Moser Baer Karamachari Union & Anr. (“Moser Baer Case”).
Die Aktienrechtsrevision brachte per 1. Januar 2023 auch verschiedene Neuerungen im Sanierungsrecht mit sich. Das Sanierungsrecht wurde dabei in gewissen Teilen präzisiert und neue Handlungspflichten wurden für den Verwaltungsrat eingeführt.
Following the important decision in Martlet Homes Ltd v Mulalley & Co Ltd [2022] (see our summary here), LDC (Portfolio One) Ltd v George Downing Construction
A Win for Subcontractors and Suppliers
When a construction company goes broke, the subcontractors and suppliers often receive letters from the liquidator demanding repayment of so-called ‘unfair preferences’.
When an ongoing business relationship has existed between the creditor company and the company in liquidation, liquidators have historically worked out the amount of the ‘unfair preference’ on a ‘running account’ basis by reference to the so-called ‘peak indebtedness principle’. For example, if the following transactions took place:
Cryptocurrency is a hot topic in the legal industry and one with which the legal world is really just starting to grapple. This is ever more prevalent with a number of recent high-profile crypto insolvencies including Three Arrows Capital, Celsius Network and FTX.
In our latest report, Partners Alastair Massey and Phil Reynolds examine the retail landscape
Over one in five (22%) retail businesses in the UK aren’t confident of trading through to the end of 2023, according to new research published in our retail report.
Dispute Resolution analysis: When the owners and controllers of a company refused to identify the recipient of payments made out of the company during the course of arbitration proceedings, their defence to a claim under section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 was struck out and judgment was entered against them.
Integral Petroleum SA v Pretrogat FZE and ors [2023] EWHC 44 (Comm)
What are the practical implications of this case?