Restructuring & Insolvency analysis: For the first time in this jurisdiction, the court has ordered the winding up of a listed plc on the just and equitable ground under section 122(1)(g) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) for loss of substratum. In a reserved judgment handed down on 17 March 2022 (following a two-week trial in February 2022), the High Court has clarified and modernised English law in line with more recent Australian authorities.

ANNUAL CASE REVIEW 2021 serlecourt RAISING THE BAR IN CHANCERY & COMMERCIAL “Stacked with highly experienced silks and juniors, Serle Court has long been one of the leading sets when it comes to civil fraud disputes” Legal 500 serlecourt 02 Welcome to Serle Court’s Annual Review of 2021. In the second year of the pandemic, barristers at Serle Court have continued to appear, often remotely, in courts at all levels around the world, in cases across our wide field of commercial chancery law.

Following substantive proceedings in the BVI, Mr Akbar was ordered to pay around $16m. The Claimant registered that judgment in England and applied for a charging order over a property believed to be owned by Mr Akbar in Trevor Square (valued at £9m). In response, Mr Akbar contended that the property – which he and his family had occupied rent free since 2005 – did not belong to him, but was beneficially owned by a company (Legacy Holdings Limited), which was in turn held within a discretionary trust (the Garden Trust).

The suspension of wrongful trading under the Corporate Governance and Insolvency Act 2020 was introduced to allow directors to trade during the pandemic without the unwanted distraction of potential liability. This article considers whether that objective is likely to be achieved in circumstances where there has been no modification to the common law rules governing duties owed to creditors, and in light of the Court’s power to award compensation in disqualification proceedings.

Introduction

Asenior employee of a company no matter how malfeasant, fraudulent, dishonest, incompetent, or inept they have proved themselves to be in the performance of their role cannot be disqualified under section 6 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 unless they were one of the company's directors or shadow directors.

In the world of companies, therefore, disqualification for unfitness following insolvency is the sole preserve of directors and those in accordance with whose direction or instruction the directors are accustomed to act.