In mortgage arrears cases separated couples have caused difficulties, in particular where one spouse has washed their hands from dealing with any debt. A recent High Court ruling has provided clarity in this area in relation to the Personal Insolvency Acts 2012-2015 and a secured creditor's position in relation to the non-engaging spouse.

Receivers are plagued by the registration of lis pendens on lands over which they have been appointed. There is increasing frustration on the part of receivers as the bar to removing alis pendens is considerably higher than that required to register it.

Registering a lis pendens

A recent decision of the Court of Appeal is a useful reminder to receivers that contracts of employment between the company in receivership and employees continue to subsist.

A receiver must properly comply with the termination provisions in a contract of employment and has no additional powers to dismiss an employee over and above what powers the employer entity has to dismiss.

Employee dismissal by receiver

In a recent judgment, the High Court has provided further guidance on the correct approach to an assessment of an application under s115A of the Personal Insolvency Acts.

The High Court, in a recent decision, applied new Company Law provisions governing how banks deal with corporate customers who are in the process of liquidation.

Old provision

In the case of In Re Dunne (A Debtor) [2017] IEHC 59, High Court, Baker J, 6 February 2017 the High Court refused an application by debtors under Section 115A of the Personal Insolvency Acts 2012 to 2015 to overturn a secured creditor's (PTSB) objection to a Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA). The debtors had appealed from a Circuit Court decision upholding PTSB's objection.

Facts

In SPV Optimal Osus Limited -v- HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Ireland) Limited & Ors the Court of Appeal rejected an appeal of a High Court decision dismissing proceedings as being frivolous and vexatious and bound to fail on the basis that the proceedings against the defendants were contrary to public policy, void and unenforceable as a matter of law since the assignment of the right to litigate third party claims amou

In Toomey Leasing Group Ltd v Sedgwick & Ors [2016] IECA 280, Court of Appeal, Hogan J, 13 October 2016,the first named respondent (Mr Sedgwick) appealed from a decision of the High Court that he, and the second respondent were personally liable to the applicant in the sum of €48,250 pursuant to Section 297A of the Companies Act 1963.

Where Debtors Are Less Than Fully Candid In Respect Of Their Means

In MB Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Ltd (In Liquidation) v Allied Irish Banks Plc [2016] IEHC 753, High Court, Barrett J, 21 December 2016, the Liquidator of the plaintiff company sought a declaration that certain transactions between 13 August 2013 and 4 October 2013 on a particular AIB account, constituted dispositions of the property of the plaintiff made after the commencement of its winding-up and thus wer