On October 12, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court denied, without comment, a petition for a writ of certiorari in a case challenging the doctrine of equitable mootness. Equitable mootness has been described as a “narrow doctrine by which an appellate court deems it prudent for practical reasons to forbear deciding an appeal when to grant the relief requested will undermine the finality and reliability of consummated plans of reorganization.”1 By his petition, David Hargreaves—an unsecured noteholder of debtor Nuverra Environmental Solutions Inc.
In what could prove to be a landmark judgment, a Dubai court ruled earlier this month that the directors of a company in bankruptcy should be personally liable for the company’s debts, to the sum of almost AED 450,000,000 (around US$ 122,000,000).
Article 144 of Federal Law No.9 of 2016 (the “Bankruptcy Law”) allows a court to order directors to pay a bankrupt company’s debts where:
One gauge of the level of business distress is the number of bankruptcy applications filed, which have risen sharply in 2021. Often seen as a last resort, this indicates that despite the continued support of the government and financial institutions, many businesses see filing bankruptcy as the best option for their businesses to survive. According to the Central Bankruptcy Court (Bankruptcy Court), 9,171 bankruptcy proceedings were filed in 2020 for a total value of THB 836.803 billion (compared to 5,415 cases in 2018 and 8,398 in 2019).
The Cayman Islands Government has published the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Bill) which will introduce welcome amendments to the Companies Act (2021 Revision) (Act), to facilitate the efficient restructuring of distressed companies for the benefit of their stakeholders.
Ruby Apartments held the management rights to 242 serviced apartments in Ruby One Tower, Surfers Paradise, when Receivers were appointed on 1 August 2019.The Receivers were appointed by a secured creditor one day after Ruby Apartments had appointed an administrator. Ruby Apartments was part of the Ralan Group.
The Receivers carried on the business of apartment manager until 30 September 2019, when they sold the business as a going concern to a third party purchaser.
In a chapter 13 case, which typically lasts from 3 to 5 years while a debtor makes payments according to a plan, the value of the debtor’s property can fluctuate. In a time like the present, when home prices are rising, sometimes dramatically, that could mean an increase in the value of a debtor’s home during the life of the chapter 13 which changes the financial dynamics in the case.
Highlights
Appointing provisional liquidators is a powerful tool, but one which often has a serious impact on the commercial operations and business reputation of a company, and so is not a step to be taken lightly. This article examines recent judicial trends in the Cayman Islands regarding the appointment of provisional liquidators, and in particular, in relation to the balance of justice that needs to be weighed as between a petitioner and the company.
A statute must be interpreted and enforced as written, regardless, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, “of whether a court likes the results of that application in a particular case.” That legal maxim guided the Sixth Circuit’s reasoning in a recent decision[1] in a case involving a Chapter 13 debtor’s repeated filings and requests for dismissal of his bankruptcy cases in order to avoid foreclosure of his home.