In the recent Court of Appeal case of Re Ipagoo LLP, the court provided welcome clarity on the status of e-money holders’ claims under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (EMR). In brief, the Court of Appeal held that the EMR do not impose a statutory trust in respect of funds received from e-money holders. The court confirmed, however, that e-money holders will still enjoy priority status in respect of their e-money creditor claims (crucially) whether or not their funds have been duly segregated from the general pool of assets, as required under the EMR.

“Good-faith purchasers enjoy strong protection under [Bankruptcy Code (“Code”)] § 363(m),” but the silent asset buyer (“B”) with “actual and constructive knowledge of a competing interest” lacks “good faith,” held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on April 4, 2022. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (“ADM”) v. Country Visions Cooperative, 2022 WL 998984 (7th Cir. Apr. 4, 2022).

What do the Dodgers, American Apparel, Rubio’s Fish Tacos, California Pizza Kitchen, MGM Studios, and Pacific Sunwear have in common? Each is an iconic Southern California brand. But that’s not all they have in common. According to statistics, over the last 20 years 143 California based companies having over $32 billion in assets, and over 211,000 employees have filed bankruptcy in Delaware alone. These companies are members of a growing list of California companies that strategically elected to file for bankruptcy outside of California.

When the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”) was notified in 2016, one of its most talked about provisions was the limited scope of adjudication and consequently narrow jurisdiction conferred upon the National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) in deciding insolvency cases. In fact, the provisions of the Code in respect of financial creditors were viewed by many as draconian and unconstitutional as the NCLT, prior to commencement of insolvency process, is required to only examine a debt and default and nothing else.

Does a rotten tree produce good fruit?

That’s the bankruptcy issue before the U.S. Supreme Court in Siegel v. Fitzgerald, where the Question is this:

“Whether the Bankruptcy Judgeship Act violates the uniformity requirement of the Bankruptcy Clause by increasing quarterly fees solely in U.S. Trustee districts.”

Note:

The Bankruptcy Protector

Imagine this: you sell a product to a company on credit at 8% interest until you are paid, and the company files for bankruptcy before repayment. Or maybe you are a hard money lender that made an unsecured loan at 18% to a company to bridge through hard times, and the company files for bankruptcy. Or maybe you are a secured creditor with a 5% loan on real estate, and after the borrower files for bankruptcy, you discover there is a defect in your mortgage and your lien can be stripped.

The Fifth Circuit recently dismissed an appeal of a confirmation order as equitably moot. The decision was based on three key factors: the appellant hadn’t obtained a stay pending appeal, the plan had been substantially consummated, and practical relief couldn’t be fashioned if the plan was unwound.Talarico v. Ultra Petro. Corp. (In re Ultra Petro. Corp.), Case No. 21-20049, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 8941 (5th Cir. Apr. 1, 2022).

In its recent decision in Walton v ACN 004 410 833 Limited (formerly Arrium Limited) (in liquidation) [2022] HCA 3 (Walton), the High Court of Australia held, in a split decision, that the mandatory public examination power contained in section 596A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the Act) could be used by eligible applicants to examine directors and other officers of a company in external administration, including senior management, external administrators and trustees, about the company’s affairs for the broad purposes of enforcing and promoting comp

On 21 April 2022, the federal Chamber of Representatives adopted the Private Members’ Bill inserting Book 1 on “General provisions” of the Civil Code (Wetsvoorstel houdende Boek 1 “Algemene bepalingen” van het Burgerlijk Wetboek / Proposition de loi portant le Livre 1er “Dispositions générales” du Code civil – the Book on General Provisions) and that inserting Book 5 “Obligations” of the Civil Code (Wetsvoorstel houndende Boek 5 “Verbintenissen” van het Burgerlijk Wetboek / Proposition de loi portant le Livre 5 “Les obligations” du Code civil – the Book on Obligations) (for a summary of bot

The Supreme Court has on 11 April 2022 dismissed a Special Leave Petition against the decision of the High Court of Tripura at Agarthala, wherein the High Court had held that the distinction of decree holders as creditors from ‘financial creditors’ and ‘operational creditors’, is intelligible and takes forward the purpose of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, without being discriminatory or arbitrary.