The Court of Appeal resolves some of the conflict between insolvency and pensions law in its decision on Horton v Henry.
The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court decision of the Deputy Judge in Horton v Henry (2014) confirming that a trustee in bankruptcy cannot access uncrystallised funds in a bankrupt's pension arrangements (or force the bankrupt to access them himself).
This article was first published in Practical Law.
With the long-awaited decision of the Court of Appeal in Horton v Henry, the Looking Glass decision in Raithatha v Williamson is finally laid to rest.
1. Introduction
The Insolvency Rules 2016 (“the 2016 Rules”) were published and laid before parliament on 25 October 2016. The rules will come in to force on 6 April 2017. The following note summarises the key features of the rules. For further detail the reader is referred to the following sources:
Facts
The appellant is a company trading in electrical goods which regularly supplied Edge Electrical Ltd ('Edge'). Their standard terms provided Edge with a short period of credit before payment was required.
The recent case of James William Stares v Elgin Legal Ltd [2016] EWHC 2523 (Ch) is notable as it considers whether a former administrator can apply for an administration order and, if such an order can have retrospective effect.
The Association of Business Recovery Professionals suggests that unsecured creditors, on average, receive 1% of the debt due to them from a company that undertakes a pre-pack sale and 3% in cases in which a going concern sale is achieved. Given such poor prospects, investment of time in identification and reduction of insolvency risk can pay dividends.
There are a number of warning signs of supply chain risk, and it is key that you are familiar with these:
The Court of Appeal in England has confirmed that a Trustee in Bankruptcy (“TIB”) cannot force a bankrupt person to elect to take their uncrystallised pension benefits solely so that the TIB can recover the benefit as income for the member's creditors. The decision in Horton v Henry (2016) clarifies the legal position after previous conflicting judgements had been given by the Courts.
A recent Court of Appeal decision in the UK has ruled that individuals facing bankruptcy cannot be forced to hand over their pensions to pay off outstanding debts. We examine the affect insolvency can have on your pension in this jurisdiction.
The recent UK Court of Appeal decision in Horton v Henry ruled that there was no requirement to draw down funds held in a pension in the event of bankruptcy. As a result of this decision, the UK legal system now appears to acknowledge that pension funds should be out of the reach of a bankruptcy trustee.
Horton v Henry: Pensions clarified
We previously discussed the uncertainty surrounding the treatment of pensions in a bankruptcy which arose from two conflicting high court decisions: Raithatha v Williamson [2012] EWHC 909 (Ch) and Horton v Henry [2014] EWHC 4209 (Ch).
In Hinton v Wotherspoon [2016] EWHC 623 (CH) (where this firm successfully represented the trustee in bankruptcy, Lloyd Hinton of Insolve Plus Limited), the court commented that the approach in Horton v Henry [2014] EWHC 4209 (Ch) was “plainly correct”.
In the case of Re BW Estates Ltd the High Court considered the validity of a directors’ out of court appointment in circumstances where there was technically an inquorate directors’ board meeting.