The Court of Cassation (19 February 2016, No. 3324) ruled that unauthorized payment of pre-‐petitionclaims mandate a stop of the concordato procedure according to Art. 173 of the Italian Bankruptcy Lawonly if a prejudice follows for the creditors
The case
The Court of Forlì (3 February 2016) allowed a competitive bid process to select the purchaser of abusiness unit during the phase following a concordato “pre-‐filing”
The case
- Novità nel processo esecutivo introdotte con il DL 59/2016
E’ entrato in vigore il 4 maggio 2016 il DL 59/2016 “Disposizioni urgenti in materia di procedure esecutive e concorsuali, nonché a favore degli investitori in banche in liquidazione”. Tale decreto ha introdotto una serie di modifiche volte a facilitare e velocizzare il recupero dei crediti.
The immediate application of the new section no. 120 TUB and the scope of its anatocism prohibition is the centre of a case-law dispute which originated from a series of inhibitory proceedings promoted by a consumer association in order to make ascertain the unlawful capitalization practiced by Banks of the passive interests in bank accounts. Now that said interim proceedings has been defined a first summary can be drawn.
Two main interpretative options so far emerged:
The Tribunal of Monza (12 October 2015) has adopted a broad application of second para. of Art. 56 of the Italian Bankruptcy Law which excludes – only for receivables non yet overdue – that a debtor of the insolvent may offset its debt against receivables which he has acquired after the declaration of bankruptcy or in the year before.
The case
According to recent Italian case law Real Estate Funds may now enter as debtors into the debt restructuring agreements (so called “accordi di ristrutturazione dei debiti”) provided for by the Italian bankruptcy law.1 Reference is made to Milan Court Decrees 6 November 2015 and 3 December 2015 (the “Case Law”).2
The Court of Bergamo (23 December 2015) authorized a business lease agreement even though a previous public auction could not be held due to the urgency of the case, considering that the mandatory provisions of Art. 163-‐bis of the Italian Bankruptcy Law apply only if consistent with the “pre-‐ concordato” phase.
The case
The Supreme Court (decision No. 20559 of 13 October 2015), decided that a single application for admission to theprocedure is not admissible if it involves a group, with a single proposal for all the creditors of the different companies,although the relevant assets and liabilities are kept formally separated.
The case
The Tribunal of Milan with a decree of 17 September 2015 ruled that the enforcement of a bank guarantee, pending therequest by the debtor to authorize the stay or termination of the same in a concordato preventivo procedure, bars thedecision by the Tribunal
The case
With the decision of 16 September 2015, No. 18131, the Court of Cassation settled a long-standing debate, ruling that the receiver can not terminate an agreement to sell real estate property, entered into by the company which is later declared bankrupt, if the purchaser has registered with the Land Registry, before bankruptcy, its claim to the Court to be transferred title to the property.