Who to pay when the bunker supplier becomes insolvent

1. Introduction

Кто должен платить, когда поставщик топлива становится неплатежеспособным.

1. Введение

In Sian Participation Corporation (In Liquidation) v Halimeda International Ltd [2024] UKPC 16, the Privy Council considered an appeal from the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (BVI) as to whether a company should be wound up where the debt on which the winding up application is based is subject to an arbitration agreement and is said to be disputed and/or subject to a cross-claim.

The first half of 2024 saw a number of high-profile insolvencies in the fashion sector including the online retailer Matches Fashion and brands such as The Vampire’s Wife and Roksanda. Indeed Matches was reported to have owed over £35.9 million to various luxury brands, with a low percentage in respect of the amount recovered for supplier brands.

So, what can brands do to guard against retailers and wholesalers in the fashion supply chain becoming insolvent?

Retention of title – Incorporate a robust clause into your sale contracts

This is the second in a series of articles on how the changes introduced by the 2024 JCT (Joint Contracts Tribunal) contracts will impact the practical administration of the JCT contractual mechanisms.

In this article, we look specifically at the insolvency related provisions in the 2024 Design and Build (D&B) contract and the 2024 Intermediate Building Contract with Contractor’s design (ICD) contract. We address the updates to the definition of insolvency, the impact of those changes for Employers and Contractors and the related knock-on impact to sub-contracts.

Insolvency intersected with the UK government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in an application to the High Court by the administrators of restaurant chain Carluccio’s. Considering the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the “Scheme”), the court held that:

On Easter Monday, 13 April 2020, the High Court (Snowden J presiding) handed down its judgment in the matter of Carluccio’s Limited (in administration) [2020] EWHC 886 (Ch). To add to the Easter joy, the furlough guidance was amended on 9 April 2020 and the judgment had to embrace the amended guidance. One of the clarifying amendments on 9 April was the confirmation that employees who transfer under TUPE after 28 February 2020 may be placed, or continue, on furlough. This has practical implications in the light of this judgment. 2.

Lawyers have called for a break on winding-up petitions against retailers as they fail to pay creditors due to the outbreak. So far, retailers have been hit with 52 winding-up petitions since the beginning of the year, with the numbers accelerating since the coronavirus outbreak took hold, according to lawyers at RPC.

Such a move would give retailers breathing space as they try to mitigate the impact of coronavirus, but it would also hurt creditors including small suppliers.

Download this guide for commercial landlords from our property and insolvency team. This handy table sets out the enforcement options potentially available following the government’s emergency measures to combat COVID-19 whether or not the defaulting tenant has entered a formal UK insolvency procedure.

Landlord’s remedies on default by an insolvent commercial tenant

The High Court has delivered the first decision on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the “Scheme”), in the context of the Carluccio’s administration.

As we have previously discussed (HERE), despite further clarification from HMRC over recent days, there remain some unanswered questions regarding the detailed operation of the Scheme, given that the Scheme’s exact legal framework has not been published.