17/11/14
The Supreme Court (on 31 October 2014) refused permission to appeal the Court of Appeal's decision in Game Group relating to administration expenses (see our previous news item of 24 February 2014 and Technical Bulletin 538) The Supreme Court held that the appeal did not raise any "arguable point of law of general public importance". Whilst the Court of Appeal's decision, which therefore now stands, was widely welcomed, it did, as noted in our Technical Bulletin, leave some questions unanswered in relation to what constitutes an administration expense. Members will also have seen our recent Technical Bulletin 577 on Laverty v British Gas Trading Limited, on the preliminary issue of whether utility supplies under deemed contracts rank as a provable debt or an administration expense, again observing that the issue of expenses remains a vexed area.
The Supreme Court has granted permission to appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision in Re D & D Wines International plc (see our Technical Bulletin 562) which held that an agent's right to collect money from customers survived termination of its agency customer monies were not held on trust for the principal. We shall update members as and when the appeal progresses.
In other news, the Privy Council's eagerly awaited judgments in PricewaterhouseCoopers v Saad Investments Company Limited and Singularis Holdings Limited v PricewaterhouseCoopers (Bermuda) (on appeal from the Bermudan Court of Appeal (see Technical Bulletin 529) were handed down on Monday 10 November 2014 (links below). A Technical Bulletin will follow on this key decision on the extent to which the common law is available to assist foreign insolvency office-holders.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (Appellant) v Saad Investments Company Limited (Respondent)
Singularis Holdings Limited (Appellant) v PricewaterhouseCoopers (Respondent)
A key service provided by the ILA is the provision of bulletins keeping its membership up-to-date with the latest developments in insolvency law.
Below are a selection of recent topics covered: