Directors' Duties and Related Matters, in the Context of COVID-19

EMEA UK 27 May 2020

Scope And Purpose of This Note

This note summarises the duties that directors of companies incorporated in England and Wales are subject to.

This note explains those duties, and matters that directors should consider in relation to those duties, in the context of the developing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), commonly known as the "coronavirus" or simply, COVID-19, pandemic.

1. Which financial (not tax or labour) short-term compensation schemes for immediate losses due to social distancing measures have been implemented? For which industries/sizes of business?

Deferred Loan Repayment

Los plazos administrativos se reanudarán el próximo 1 de junio, mientras que los plazos procesales y sustantivos lo harán el 4 de junio, tal y como aparece contemplado en el BOE del 23 de mayo de 2020.

This week’s TGIF considers a recent case where the Federal Court ordered payments made while a DOCA was in force, to which the deed administrators were signatories, were recoverable as unfair preferences.

Key Takeaways

On 20 December 2020, Turkey enacted Presidential Decision No. 3433, which extends the period for applying and making payments vis-à-vis new restructuring regime on receivables contained in the Law on Restructuring of Certain Receivables and Amending Certain Laws No 7256 (“Restructuring Law”), which came into force 17 November last year.

This page was updated on 8 January 2021.

2020 ha sido un año atípico. La alerta sanitaria mundial provocada por la expansión del COVID-19 y la consecuente declaración del estado de alarma en España en marzo de 2020 llevaron a una vorágine legislativa sin precedentes. En este contexto, las empresas se encuentran inmersas en un escenario incierto en el que la toma de decisiones juega un papel clave para la viabilidad futura del negocio.

The facts of this case were somewhat unusual although it serves as a reminder of the principles involved in the trading of a business by a trustee in bankruptcy.

Background

Timeline for Government’s extended measures 

A basic tenet of bankruptcy law, premised on the legal separateness of a debtor prior to filing for bankruptcy and the estate created upon a bankruptcy filing, is that prepetition debts are generally treated differently than debts incurred by the estate, which are generally treated as priority administrative expenses. However, this seemingly straightforward principle is sometimes difficult to apply in cases where a debt technically "arose" or "was incurred" prepetition, but does not become payable until sometime during the bankruptcy case.