On 5 February 2016 the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the fact that a trustee in bankruptcy unlawfully collected pledged receivables has no consequences for the ranking of his salary. That the trustee in this case would profit from his unlawful behaviour (his salary is the highest ranking claim in a bankruptcy) is undesirable, but not enough reason to change the ranking.

Het is tegenwoordig schering en inslag: zogenaamde 'lege boedels'. Het gaat dan om rechtspersonen die failliet verklaard worden terwijl deze niet over enige baten beschikken. 

Een aangestelde curator, wiens salaris op de eerste plaats voldaan wordt uit die baten, heeft in dat geval het nakijken. Hij zal zijn wettelijke werkzaamheden toch moeten verrichten, in de wetenschap dat hij daarvoor niet zal worden betaald.

Verzet door curatoren

The Supreme Court recently issued an interesting ruling in an insolvency case where receivables that had been validly pledged to a bank were unlawfully collected by a bankruptcy trustee. The question was whether the damages claim of the bank against the bankrupt estate would take priority over the foreclosure and settlement costs, including the bankruptcy trustee’s salary.

On 5 February 2016, the Dutch Supreme Court (“Supreme Court“) ruled (ECLI:NL:HR:2016:199) that an estate claim (boedelvordering) based on damage suffered by a pledge holder, caused by the wrongful collection of claims encumbered by a right of pledge by a bankruptcy trustee, does not have priority over the estate claim relating to the remuneration of the trustee.

Op 29 januari 2016 heeft de Hoge Raad een interessante uitspraak gewezen over de ontbinding (HR 29 januari 2016, ECLI:NL:HR:2016:152).

De feiten waren als volgt.

Twee broers zijn tot 1995 gezamenlijk eigenaar van een huis in Zeeland. Nadat broer A de volledige eigendom heeft verkregen, bedingt broer B het recht om gedurende een aantal weken per jaar het huis te huren conform een vastgestelde maximum prijs.

In a recent judgment, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that in the event of a bankruptcy whereby the bankruptcy receiver has wrongfully collected receivables which were pledged to a secured creditor and the total value of the assets of the bankrupt estate was insufficient to pay all debts, the bankruptcy receiver was allowed to recover its salary from the proceeds of that wrongful collection with priority over the claim of that secured creditor.

In the event of bankruptcy, creditors are entitled to disclosure of the bookkeeping of the estate under certain conditions. In its decision dated 8 April 2016 (ECLI:NL:HR:2016:612), the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that this right is limited and depends on the purpose of the disclosure. Creditors are not entitled to disclosure if the purpose is to retrieve information to support their claim against a third party.

In its 18 December 2015 ABN/Marell judgement, the Dutch Supreme Court held that if secured debt is pledged, the holder of that right of pledge has the authority to enforce not only its own pledge but also the security connected with that pledged secured debt. Such chains of secured debt are not uncommon, but often parties are not aware that they exist. According to this new case law, security down the chain can be used in the enforcement of the primary security.

Court of Appeal Arnhem-Leeuwarden: a shareholder loan does not in itself have a subordinated character. If subordination has not been specifically agreed, other creditors may file a claim on the basis of tort law or on the principles of reasonableness and fairness in order to achieve a similar result, in other words as if the shareholder loan had been subordinated.

Quoted October 2015 - Edition 105 Current issues relating to accounting law, article 403 liability and insolvency law 2 In this edition • Introducion • Financial reporting • Article 403 liability • Facilitating reorganisations of businesses: Dutch pre-packs and schemes 3 Fourth Directive (78/660/EEC) and the Seventh Directive (83/349/EEC) in relation to individual and consolidated accounts, and Directive 2013/50/EU, which amends a number of the provisions of the Prospectus Directive (2003/71/EC) and the Transparency Directive (2004/109/ EC). 1.