LBI EHF (in winding up) v. Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG and Raiffeisen Bank International AG [2017] EWHC 522 (Comm)
Ministerial Decisions
Ministerial Decision No. 212/2016 Issuing the Regulations on cultural initiatives Issued on 5 December 2016. Effective from the day after its publication date
Ministerial Decision No. 238/2016 Determining the fees for enrolment in the table of lawyers Issued on 1 December 2016. Effective from the day after its publication date
Introduction
The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench decision in Redwater Energy Corporation Re, 2016 ABQB 278, written by Chief Justice Neil Wittmann, clarifies that the provisions of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) addressing the environmental liability of trustees render certain provisions of provincial regulatory legislation addressing wells and pipelines inoperative to the extent they conflict with the BIA.
Legal changes affecting construction businesses from 1 October 2015
1 October 2015 ushers in a number of legal changes which affect construction businesses operating in the UK. We have provided brief highlights of some of the changes below. If you need further information, please contact us using the details on the right.
Nigel Barnett talks about bribes and other proprietary rights in insolvencies.
Introduction
For over 150 years, it has been a principle of English law that if an agent takes a bribe or a secret commission, he is liable to account to his principal for the amount received. However, there has been conflicting authority and academic debate as to whether the principal merely has a personal claim against the agent or whether he can assert a proprietary claim to the monies received and any profits made therefrom.
When structuring a complex debt financing, financiers need to consider whether unsecured and structurally subordinated “mezzanine” debt ought to be replaced in the capital hierarchy with secured second lien credit. The relatively lower financing cost for second lien credit is based on the assumption that the second lien lenders might obtain some equity value from the liens on the residual collateral which would not otherwise be available with such “mezzanine” debt.
The Government has fed back on the responses to DBIS’s consultation on the effect of bankruptcy on the ability to access a basic bank account. Responses to the consultation have shown that only 27% of people subject to a bankruptcy order are able to retain their bank account. A bank's decision not to offer a bank account to a bankrupt is mainly based on the bankrupt's credit record, rather than on the risk of the trustee making a claim against the bank, a risk that the consultation process has shown is more perceived than real.
The administrators of Lehman Brothers International Europe (LBIE) have announced that, following a ruling in the Frankfurt Regional Court, LBIE’s client money claim against Lehman Brothers Bankhaus AG (Bankhaus) is to be included in the insolvency claims of Bankhaus as an ordinary creditor. The judgment should result in a higher payout for LBIE’s client money claimants.(Source: Update on Client Money Held at Lehman Bankhaus)
FSA has published an undertaking Legal & General has given under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (UTCCR), in relation to its home insurance policies. It held that certain critical expressions in the policy were potentially so wide that it was hard for a customer to know what was excluded. The insurer agreed to make its wording easier to understand. (Source: FSA Publishes Insurance UTCCR Undertaking)
When a company winds up, begins restructuring proceedings or goes bankrupt, a debtor or creditor may be able to cancel out the amount payable to the other party by using the remedy of “set‐off”. Set‐off involves the cancelling of crossliabilities between two parties who owe each other money. It is a valuable tool that can increase a creditor’s percentage of recovery and decrease the debt burden of a debtor.
Types of Set‐off: Contractual, Legal or Equitable