1. SOLVENCY II
1.1 Solvency II Directive review: Provisional political agreement reached on proposed Solvency II amending Directive
R (on the application of Palmer) (Appellant) v Northern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court and another (Respondents) [2023] UKSC 38
On appeal from: [2021] EWHC 3013
Solicitors’ Assumption of Responsibility: Miller v Irwin Mitchell LLP [2023] EWCA Civ 53
There was good news for travel solicitors this week, with the Court of Appeal giving judgment for the solicitors in Miller v Irwin Mitchell.
In the recent case of Just Trays Ltd v Emu Products Ltd [2024] EWHC 29 (Ch) (12th January 2024) the High Court was required to consider this type of application. David Garner reports on the case below.
When a company owes a party money, one option open to it might be to issue a winding up petition against the debtor company.
The UK government has updated the 30-year-old special administration regime for water companies making it possible to rescue water companies.
The new legislation (plus two draft instruments) aims to modernise water company insolvency legislation in the face of the growing challenges in the industry including higher operating costs, claims over sewage pollution and significant debt burden (Thames Water owes £18.3 billion).
New special administration regime
Over the past week, reports have emerged about filings that have been made at Companies House marking a charge as satisfied, without the company's or relevant lender's knowledge.
There were rumours last week, which were simply that, because Companies House had not publicly announced any issue, but, as we have seen over the weekend and is now widely reported in the news, it appears that there have been at least 800 erroneous filings.
Jeremy Charles Frost & Anor v The Good Box Co Labs Ltd & Ors [2024] EWHC 422 (Ch) is a rare case about office-holders’ remuneration that raises some interesting points, although one at least is specific to the nature of the application before the court.
Like many other strategically important sectors, there has long been a bespoke insolvency regime for the water sector. New legislation has been brought into effect in early 2024 as a first step to bringing the special administration regime for water (the SAR) up to date with the general UK insolvency regime.
On 4 March 2024, Mr Justice Richards of the English High Court delivered a judgment (the Judgment) in relation to the sanction of the restructuring plan under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006 (the Plan) of Project Lietzenburger Straße HoldCo S.à r.l. (the Plan Company). The Judgment required that a new creditors’ meeting of the Plan Company’s senior creditors be convened to vote on an amended Plan.
In the first restructuring plan since the Court of Appeal's landmark decision in Adler, the High Court has handed down an extraordinary judgment sanctioning McDermott's heavily contested Part 26A restructuring plan and berating the conduct of its opposing creditor. Despite this, the opposing creditor ended up with the financial compromise they asked for – not through the plan but, in part at least, because of events occurring in the parallel Dutch WHOA proceedings. This should give UK lawyers some pause for thought.