Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas toliau formuoja praktiką dėl kreditorių teisėtų interesų apsaugos. 2017 m. gegužės 4 d. išnagrinėtoje byloje Nr. 3K-3-211-469/2017 buvo sprendžiama dėl bendrovės vadovo ir jos akcininko civilinės atsakomybės, kreditoriui jiems pareiškus tiesioginį ieškinį.

On 12 May 2017, the Supreme Court of Lithuania issued a ruling, which further contributes to the case-law concerning setting of the procedure and price of the realisation of assets with regard to a bankrupt company. The ruling recognises that, in certain exceptional cases, a decision on the price and procedure for the realisation of assets may be made by a court independently and in disregard of the principle of autonomy of the creditors’ meeting of a bankrupt company.

In practice there a numerous uncertainties in relation to civil liability of management bodies of companies, scope of such liability, and related matters. On 4 April 2017, considering the current situation, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania (the Supreme Court or SC) published the first overview of case law in relation to application of the norms of civil law regulating civil liability of management bodies of companies in the case law of the Supreme Court.

Generally speaking, wrongful trading is the special form of liability where a director of a company is liable for damages towards the creditors for the mismanagement of an insolvent company.

A special feature of the institution of wrongful trading is, that it may give rise not only to the liability of the director of the company but also to the liability of the director, management, employee of the parent company or even of the grandparent company (so called shadow director).

Table of contents

Bankruptcy .............................................................................. 2

Controlled management .......................................................... 2

Moratorium or suspension of payments .................................. 3

Company voluntary arrangement ............................................ 3

Involuntary liquidation.............................................................. 3

Contacts .................................................................................. 4

Pagal šiuo metu galiojančią LR įmonių bankroto įstatymo redakciją, bendrovės vadovas arba akcininkas privalo kreiptis į teismą dėl bankroto bylos bendrovei iškėlimo, jei bendrovė negali ir (arba) negalės atsiskaityti su kreditoriais, arba jei bendrovė viešai yra paskelbusi arba pranešusi kreditoriams, kad neketina vykdyti savo įsipareigojimų. Tokiu būdu geriausiai su įmonės finansine situacija susipažinę subjektai skatinami imtis skubių priemonių, kad žalą patirtų kuo mažiau kreditorių bei kad pradelstų įsipareigojimų dydis būtų kiek įmanoma mažesnis.

According to the current wording of the Republic of Lithuania Enterprise Bankruptcy Law, a head of an enterprise or a shareholder must file a petition with a court for the initiation of the enterprise bankruptcy proceedings in the event where the company is not able and/or shall not be able to settle with its creditors or where the company has made a public announcement or has informed the creditors that it has no intention to discharge its obligations.

Hellas case: The Luxembourg Commercial Court rejects the English liquidators’ one billion EUR claim

In a well motivated judgment rendered on 23 December 2015, the Luxembourg Commercial Court has ruled in favor of the former private equity owners of Hellas Group, i.e.ultimately Apax Partners and TPG Capital, and dismissed the action of the English liquidators of Hellas Telecommunications II SCA (Hellas II) for reimbursement or damages of 973 million EUR.

On 2 March 2016, the Luxembourg Court of Appeal has denied an appeal filed by Dr. Adil Elias, Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt and a handful of other creditors of BCCI against a judgment previously rendered by the Luxembourg Commercial Court, which had refused to reopen the liquidation proceedings of Bank of Credit and Commerce International S.A. (“BCCI S.A.”) and BCCI Holdings (Luxembourg) S.A. (“BCCI Holdings”).

On 25 April 2018 the Court of Appeal ruled on the loss of credit capacity in the context of bankruptcy. The case involved a company that intended to resist a creditor's application for bankruptcy on the basis that it had not lost its credit capacity, as it could prove that the funds needed to settle its debt were available in its lawyer's third-party account. Therefore, the court had to verify whether there was a loss of credit capacity, which is necessary to declare bankruptcy.