The liquidators of a company successfully applied to join the insurers of the directors of an insolvent company to court proceedings.

In Issue

As part of a claim against a company’s directors for insolvent trading, it became apparent that should the directors be found liable, they would be unable to pay the damages sought, and would become bankrupt. The liquidator brought an interlocutory application to join the company’s insurers that provided management liability cover in the relevant period, pursuant to of s117 of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth).

It has been a difficult start to the year for many D&Os. Data from the Insolvency Service released earlier this month confirmed that the number of companies entering a voluntary insolvency process has more than doubled in the first quarter of 2022 (a 112% increase) compared to the same period in 2021. This is the highest number of company voluntary liquidations since records began in 1960.

Good afternoon.

These are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of April 25, 2022.

In May 2021, the UK Government published a Consultation which set out its proposals for targeted (but significant) amendments to certain aspects of the existing UK insolvency arrangements for insurers.

Ristorante Ltd t/a Bar Massimo v Zurich Insurance Plc [2021] EWHC 2538 (Ch)

This case is an example of where an insurer alleged that the insured had not complied with the duty of fair presentation introduced by the Insurance Act 2015 and used the insured’s failure to disclose the past involvement of its directors in insolvent companies as a reason to refuse to pay out following a fire. However, the insurer was not successful because of the way in which the question that gave rise to the alleged non-disclosure was worded.

Background

The proposal for a directive on the recovery and resolution of insurance and reinsurance companies enshrines the no creditor worse off principle as provided for in the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (“BRRD”). This opens the door for the Portuguese legislature to repeat the mistakes it made when incorporating the BRRD into Portuguese law

No creditor should incur greater losses in the resolution than if the firm undergoing resolution had been wound up in normal insolvency proceedings

Company insolvencies have recently hit a record high and are on an upward trend in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that we are likely to see an increase in claims against directors, especially in light of new legislation that expands the government’s powers of investigation.

Record high insolvencies

The opinion is from In re The Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., Case No. 20-10322, Western New York Bankruptcy Court (entered December 27, 2021, Doc. 1487).

The Diocese of Buffalo asks the Bankruptcy Court to refer its Chapter 11 case and related adversary proceedings to mandatory global mediation–it does so twice. Its first request is denied. It’s second is granted . . . but with limitations.

Overview

１．はじめに

保険契約は、何十年間、場合によっては終身期間の契約と なっているものもあります。保険事業者（保険会社を含みます。 以下同様です。）は、契約者保護の観点から、法令により、財 務の健全性を保つことが義務付けられていますが、それでも なお、長期の契約期間中に経済が大きく変動し、経営状態の 良かった保険事業者でも倒産する可能性があります。

1990年代から2000年代にかけて、保険会社の倒産事例が いくつか発生した後は、日本において保険事業者が倒産する ことはしばらくありませんでしたが、2020年に東京地方裁判所 で保険事業者の民事再生の事案が発生しており、今後も保険 事業者の倒産事案が発生する可能性があります。

以下では、保険事業者が倒産した場合を中心に、倒産手続 における保険契約1 の取扱いを解説いたします。

２．保険事業者が倒産した場合

（１） 各倒産手続での共通事項