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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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Re TMG Brokers Ltd (in liquidation); Baker v Staines [2021] EWHC 1006 ( Ch) — What are the practical implications of this case? Company payments treated as shareholder distributions that ignore the statutory framework in Part 23 of the Companies Act 2006 ( CA 2006) are ultra vires, and consequently amount to a breach of the director’s duty under CA 2006, s 171 (among other duties)... Directors must be able to explain and justify sums leaving the company’s bank account ( Re Idessa ( UK) Ltd [2012] 1 BCLC 80), and where the company’s books and records are not produced, the court may draw adverse inferences ( Re Mumtaz Properties Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 610)... For relief under CA 2006, s 1157, honesty on its own is not enough—the director must also establish that the belief relied upon was...
Commerz Real Investmentgesellschaft mbh v TFS Stores Ltd [2021] EWHC 863 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Advisers have long anticipated a defended claim for arrears of commercial rent predicated on the now routine coronavirus arguments that have echoed since the first lockdown in March 2020. Yet, despite the undeniable hardship endured by retail and other business occupiers during the pandemic, the court’s scope to recast the parties’ bargain is minimal. Put shortly, the court is tasked with enforcing, not reshaping, the bargain the parties struck. Sympathy cannot rewrite the parties’ contracts. Two aspects of the ruling stand out. First, implying a term into a meticulously negotiated commercial lease to suspend rent when government measures compel the premises to shut is exceptionally difficult. Those brokering pandemic provisions on renewals under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 will recognise the breadth and...
Biscoe and another (as joint liquidators of Equitable Law Capital Ltd) v Milner and others [2021] EWHC 763 ( Ch), [2021] All ER ( D) 26 ( Apr) What are the practical implications of this case? Although a large portion of the decision focuses on assessing the evidence, it also contains sections capturing the legal principles accepted by the parties (and rulings on disputed points where pertinent). Because multiple issues were in play, the judgment effectively distils the key statutory provisions and recent authorities on wrongful trading, fraudulent trading, transactions at an undervalue, and misfeasance. As such, it serves as a valuable recent authority for an overview of these areas. Moreover, beginning at para [400], there is a thorough legal examination of the impact of a settlement between a claimant and one of several joint and/or concurrent tortfeasors. The court then...
Avery- Gee and others v Sibley and others [2021] EWHC 798 ( Ch), [2021] All ER ( D) 24 ( Apr) What are the practical implications of this case? Although the principles governing contractual construction are now considered settled (see Teesside Gas Transportation Ltd v Cats North Sea Ltd and others [2020] EWCA Civ 503, para [55] per Lord Justice Males), disagreements about what contracts mean will not disappear. So long as drafting is ambiguous, the courts—and, as here, administrators appointed over distressed companies—must work out, long after the event, what particular words were intended to signify. Administrators should likewise beware of preferring a company charge-holder’s interpretation over that advanced by an unsecured creditor where their financial interests pull in different directions. The decision provides salient guidance for contract drafters and for those presenting these disputes in court. First, it underscores the need for lucid...
Lin v Gudmundsson concerned a husband adjudged bankrupt on a creditor’s petition. The wife sought to have the bankruptcy annulled, but the court declined. The decision matters for two principal reasons: it underlines that, for insolvency in this setting, the spotlight is on the bankrupt’s cashflow rather than on their assets it clarifies the distinct evidential burdens on creditor-initiated petitions and debtor-made applications Written by Steven Fennell, barrister at Exchange Chambers. Lin v Gudmundsson (a bankrupt) and others [2021] EWHC 820 ( Ch), [2021] All ER ( D) 29 ( Apr) What are the practical implications of this case? Advisers assisting a spouse contesting the other’s bankruptcy must concentrate squarely on the bankrupt’s liquidity on the date of the order. Demonstrating that assets exceeded debts by a wide margin will not suffice. The issue is whether those assets were readily realisable so that the...
Government backs Law Commission’s charity law reform proposals, LNB News 22/03/2021 98 What are the Law Commission's proposals, and which have the government accepted? The government has agreed to almost all of the Law Commission’s suggestions. Although many appear, at first glance, to be highly technical (and some certainly are), taken one by one and, more importantly, in combination, they are expected to be of real, practical value to charity trustees and their lawyers. Section 5 of the government’s reply deals with the Commission’s recommendations on buying and selling (including specified leases) and on securing mortgages over charity land. The existing framework sits mainly in Part 7 of the Charities Act 2011 ( CA 2011). As the Commission’s report explains, elements of the present regime have drawn criticism for complexity, impracticality, and for adding needless expense and delay. The most notable...
Morley (trading as Morley Estates) v Royal Bank of Scotland plc [2021] EWCA Civ 338 What are the practical implications of this case? This decision clarifies the boundaries of a bank’s obligations to its client and demonstrates how those responsibilities shift over the course of their dealings. Where a borrower has taken out a secured lending facility, the bank’s duty to deliver banking services with reasonable skill and care ceases when the contractual loan period ends. After that point, the bank is only bound by the express provisions of the mortgage and the equitable duties inherent in that security relationship (for example, the recognised obligation to exercise reasonable care to realise a proper price for the collateral). It is not correct to read into the mortgage an implied contractual duty of reasonable skill and care. In addition, the Court of Appeal endorsed RBS’s...
Security Trustee Services Ltd v Seabrooke Road Ltd [2021] EWHC 436 ( Ch), [2021] All ER ( D) 105 ( Jan) Delivering judgment, Miles J determined that the omission to serve the QFCH not only breached para 26 but also constituted an abuse of process, warranting the No Is’ removal from the court record in accordance with the Court of Appeal’s guidance in JCAM Commercial Real Estate Property XV Ltd v Davis Haulage Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ 267. This signifies a departure from the recent authorities of Re Tokenhouse VB Ltd; Strategic Advantage SPC v Rutter and others [2020] EWHC 3171 ( Ch), and Re NMUL Realisations Ltd; Causer and others v NMUL Realisations Ltd (in administration) [2021] EWHC 94 ( Ch), where Insolvency and Companies Court Judges ( ICCJs) treated the non-service of a QFCH with a No I (under para 15 or para 26) as a...
Re Anthony Leslie Hancock; Promontoria ( Pine) Designated Activity Co v Hancock [2021] EWHC 259 ( Ch), [2021] All ER ( D) 86 ( Feb) What are the practical implications of this case? The court’s observations on the use of redacted material offer clearer guidance to other lenders about how far documents may properly be obscured on security or confidentiality grounds. More broadly, the decision aids lenders when preparing deeds of assignment, underscoring that confidential material ought to be segregated from the operative mechanics so that no working provisions need be blanked out for confidentiality reasons. Together, these points give lenders practical direction on presenting evidence and structuring assignments while preserving confidentiality without undermining enforceable terms of deal overall. Notably, the court affirmed that extensive redaction must be comprehensively explained and justified, a requirement of particular importance in opposed statutory demand...
Falk J held that the interim notes—together with any associated discounts and backstop fees—and the advisers’ fees did not bear on class composition. Although the judge regarded the work fee as relevant to class formulation, and even if the interim notes were also pertinent, the scheme creditors could still be consulted in a single class because their rights were not materially distinct, especially given that the most likely alternative to the scheme was the Codere group’s liquidation. Re Codere Finance 2 ( UK) Ltd [2020] EWHC 2441 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? The decision offers clear guidance for practitioners assisting companies proposing schemes of arrangement on the correct approach to defining creditor classes for voting. Matters practitioners should keep in mind when advising an applicant scheme company include: the creditors’ existing rights and the effect the scheme terms would have on those...
Re Legal and General Assurance Society Ltd and another company [2020] EWHC 2299 ( Ch), [2020] All ER ( D) 37 ( Sep) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling is plainly positive for insurers and banks seeking to utilise the Part VII transfer mechanism under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ( FSMA 2000). Notably, the court’s method of distinguishing this transfer from that in Re Prudential Assurance Company Ltd and others [2019] EWHC 2245 ( Ch) is especially helpful, enabling many schemes to progress without companies being overly anxious about contravening the Re Prudential decision. That stance should reassure stakeholders relying on established practice while still acknowledging the court’s vigilance arising from the earlier decision and debate. However, it would be incorrect to claim that the Re Prudential judgment—at least pending the outcome of the intended...
Introduction The UK’s disapplication of so‑called ipso facto clauses—contract terms allowing a party to end the agreement when insolvency proceedings begin against the other—was made a permanent feature by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 ( CIGA 2020). For deeper commentary on CIGA 2020’s reforms, see News Analysis: Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020—the rise of the moratorium and restructuring plan and the fall of the Scheme? Halting such terminations marks a significant shift in UK insolvency practice. Ipso facto defaults are standard in most formal agreements, save for the briefest or most transitory. Further, English authority has treated a counterparty’s insolvency as repudiatory where it deprives the insolvent of the ability to perform. Statutes invalidating these provisions exist in many jurisdictions. The UK legislation mirrors the conventional model: first declaring...
Nosnehpetsj Ltd (in liquidation) v Watersheds Capital Partners Ltd and another [2020] EWHC 1938 ( Ch), [2020] All ER ( D) 144 ( Jul) What are the practical implications of this case? The key takeaway is that directors will generally be held to the content of confirmation statements, accounts and, for the period before 2016, annual returns. Many private companies operate with a degree of informality, and directors sometimes shift assets within a small group merely by reflecting the transfers in those filings. A director who acts in that way is unlikely to be allowed to step back from those actions by asserting that corporate formalities were not observed, particularly where third parties have relied on the records or one group company has gone into insolvency. The old saying that equity will not assist a volunteer carries limited weight in corporate contexts. The modern stance is that...
Re Lehman Brothers International ( Europe) (in administration) [2020] EWHC 1932 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment clarifies the connection required between the statutory aims of administration under IA 1986, Sch B1, para 3 and any management act that administrators may approve under IA 1986, Sch B1, para 64. Earlier decisions had reached inconsistent conclusions on this question. The court has now confirmed that, while administrators must in general carry out their functions in accordance with the para 3 objectives, they are not obliged to prove that each discrete action they take has a direct causal link to that objective... What was the background? LBIE’s administration had proved successful. All admitted creditors had been paid in full, with sufficient reserves set aside for the small number of outstanding claims. A cash surplus had accumulated in the...
Re Juraid Anwer [2020] EWHC 1745 ( Ch), [2020] All ER ( D) 94 ( Jul) What are the practical implications of this case? The key takeaway from this decision is that Mr Anwer filed a second application to set aside the statutory demand while the first had been adjourned pending the outcome of linked county court proceedings. As the second application relied on the same grounds, the court found it to be a duplicative proceeding, disproportionate and a misuse of resources. It was accordingly deemed totally without merit and this was taken into account when granting an ECRO. Those seeking to set aside statutory demands—and their legal advisers—should exercise particular caution before issuing a further application where an earlier one is still extant. The court will be alert to attempts to use a second application to sidestep an adjournment of the first; it will...
Introduction At the start of 2020, the spread of coronavirus visibly harmed virtually every part of society in China. Countless enterprises confronted severe cash flow pressures while struggling to endure through these difficult months. In response to the epidemic, China’s policy‑making machinery worked intensively to roll out a range of essential measures intended to restart the economy. In particular, the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, the principal authority shaping bankruptcy policy, issued at least two significant guidelines on the judicial hearing of civil cases linked to the coronavirus outbreak. The first, dated 20 April 2020, centred chiefly on adjudicating disputes concerning enforcement of contract, employment relations, and consumer protection in the production of medical goods. The second, released on 19 May 2020, placed strong emphasis on hearings about the enforcement of contract and, moreover, on the...
Re Grosvenor Property Developers Ltd (in liquidation) Atkinson and another v Varma (also known as Sanjeev Varma) and others [2020] EWHC 1114 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? There are four practical consequences flowing from this ruling: It firmly affirms that a defendant who has been debarred may not at all advance submissions in their own defence, save to point out obvious, manifest errors. It also delineates how far, in practice, the claimant must go to properly establish the claim against such a party. It offers an instance of a highly persuasive forensic case, without any expert opinion or cross-examination, that both documents and individuals were inventions. It considers the line between de facto directors and shadow directors. It exemplifies an award of compound interest in a dispute concerning the...
Prompted by the coronavirus ( COVID-19) outbreak, government has unveiled details of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill. It had earlier consulted on reforms to the UK insolvency framework and issued its reply on 26 August 2018 (see News Analysis: Exploring the government’s response to the insolvency and corporate governance consultation). The Bill is moving through parliament and its provisions may still change during that journey. Broadly, it reflects the conclusions in the government’s response, and this News Analysis considers the Bill as at 20 May 2020. Among the measures proposed, the Bill (at clause 7 and Sch 9) inserts a new Part 26A into the Companies Act 2006 ( CA 2006)— Arrangements and Reconstructions for Companies in Financial Difficulty (a ‘restructuring plan’). What are the practical implications? We have already witnessed multiple significant corporate collapses worldwide tied to coronavirus recently. Some failures have been...
Lowe and another (as joint administrators of Benedict Cole Ltd (in administration)) v Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance Ltd and another company [2020] EWHC 946 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? The court examined the principles governing constructive trusts within an insolvency setting, providing a helpful overview of earlier guidance, and confirmed from para [44] onwards that, for those aiming to establish constructive trusts, the following propositions hold: The first place to look is the parties’ contracts. Do they show the usual indicators of a trust arrangement—e.g. a separate account, express statements of trust or duty, and similar features? If a trust arises, it must exist at the point of insolvency; otherwise, it would jeopardise the pari passu principle which, in this context, is of overriding importance. A mistaken payment, by itself, is insufficient to create a constructive trust; there is, at minimum, the further...
Pillmoor (as trustee of the bankruptcy estate of Mohammed Erfan Miah) v Miah and another [2019] EWHC 3696 ( Ch), [2019] All ER ( D) 211 ( Oct) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision offers practical direction on claims where one spouse seeks a beneficial stake in a property not held in their legal name. The judgment clarified the threshold for proving a common intention constructive trust, identifying what will, and will not, suffice. The party asserting the interest must adduce evidence of either an explicit arrangement to share the beneficial ownership, or facts from which such an accord can properly be inferred. Accordingly, proof should address matters that bore on ownership and family finances, including: discussions between the spouses that touched on the question of ownership; the role each spouse played in the...
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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