07 March 2014
[2014] EWCA Civ 215
Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Patten, Lewison and Sharp LJJ)
The Court of Appeal, reversing the first instance decision, held that moneys paid to an agent after the agent’s insolvency were available for agent’s creditors generally and were not held on trust for the principal.
Key point
Under English law it is now clear that, in order to trace monies through bank accounts, it is not necessary that payments should occur in any specific order.
The facts
Introduction In the case of Rawlinson & Hunter Trustees SA v Akers & Another1 the Court of Appeal considered the parameters of litigation privilege, providing a useful reminder of how narrow the protection is and the care that must be taken in relation to the production of documents by third parties where a dispute is, or may be, on the horizon.
Key point
The UK Government has published its response to their July 2013 consultation on restoring transparency and trust in the UK corporate governance regime. There are a number of proposals to widen the scope of the director disqualification regime and make recovery of losses by creditors from responsible directors easier.
The response
Key point
Where in a UK administration an action would give some benefit to creditors, and risk neither detriment to them nor impede the administration's progress, the court may be willing to intervene and support a challenge to the administrator's actions.
The facts
The recent case of APCOA Parking1 has set a precedent by allowing yet more non-English incorporated debtors to implement financial and corporate restructurings using English schemes of arrangement.
Restrictive covenant - if in doubt, lender should be notified; the costs risk of insolvency proceedings; interim payments; service of claim form; Wragge & Co's banking and finance experts bring you the latest on the cases and issues affecting the lending industry.
Restrictive covenant - if in doubt, lender should be notified
Recent Developments
This update focusses on a range of issues affecting IPs from the past two months, covering the consultation on fees announced in February, the HMRC announced changes to the VAT deregistration regime, when accountants may be required to produce documents under Sections 235 and 256 of the Insolvency Act, and a recent Court of Appeal decision on when a company may be considered to be insolvent for the purpose of Section 238 actions
Consultation on the regulation of Insolvency Practitioners and IPs’ fees
The English Cases —Further Extension of UK Scheme of Arrangement for the Benefit of Foreign Companies