A recent Court of Appeal decision has confirmed that the usual contractual rules, including as to remoteness of damage, apply by analogy to the assessment of compensation under a cross-undertaking in damages in a freezing order. However, there is also room for exceptions, given that there is in fact no contract: Hone and others v Abbey Forwarding Ltd and another[2014] EWCA Civ 711.
Background
The ongoing saga of the Scottish Coal Company liquidation provides the background to East Ayrshire Council v Zurich Insurance [2014] CSOH 102.
East Ayrshire Council (EAC) granted planning permission for a surface mine at Dalfad subject to restoration obligations on Scottish Coal. These obligations were secured by a restoration bond granted by Zurich Insurance. Following Scottish Coal's liquidation, it and its liquidators, were unable to carry out the restoration work.
Schroder Exempt Property Unit Trust and another v. Birmingham City Council [2014] EWHC 2207
Summary
A landlord is liable for business rates where a tenant's lease is disclaimed, even if the landlord does not take possession of the property following a disclaimer.
Background
Key Point
Two recent cases have resulted in innovative structures for restructuring the finances of groups of companies being sanctioned by the English Courts pursuant to schemes of arrangement. The trend for using such a mechanism for financial restructuring shows no signs of abating. On the contrary the innovative scope of such schemes appears to be expanding
Stemcor restructuring
The scheme
Background
Key Point
The liquidation of an agent for service appointed by a Borrower under a loan agreement did not prevent the Lender from validly serving process on the Borrower by delivering documents to that agent.
The facts
A loan agreement contained the following clause:
"Service of process. Without prejudice to any other mode of service allowed under any relevant laws, each Borrower -
Key Point
The Graham Review into pre-pack administrations suggests beefing up SIP16 and creating new steps in the sale process where the sale is to a connected party but stops short of proposing new legislation.
The Graham Review
Key Point
Neither failure to obtain debtor's consent to modifications to an IVA proposal, prior to the creditors' meeting; nor the unauthorised exercise of a proxy at a creditors' meeting render an approved IVA a nullity.
The facts
Under the equity of exoneration, where jointly owned property is charged to secure the indebtedness of one joint owner, the other joint owner is presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to be acting as a surety only, and is entitled to be exonerated by the principal debtor. This long established principle remains relevant in the modern day, as was recently demonstrated in Day v Shaw.
The UK has long-since established itself as a jurisdiction of choice for complex cross-border restructurings involving corporate groups whose principal operations are overseas.