Wednesday 24 July 2013

UK: Financial Support Directions and insolvency - Supreme Court judgment in Nortel and Lehman Companies

The Supreme Court gave judgment earlier today in In the matter of the Nortel Companies; In the matter of the Lehman Companies; In the matter of the Lehman Companies (No.2) [2013] UKSC52. A copy of the judgment is available here (pdf). A summary is available here (pdf). The court unanimously held that liability under a financial support direction, issued by the Pensions Regulator after a company had gone into administration, was not an expense of the administration but ranked as a provable debt. At first instance and on appeal it was held that the liability was an expense of the administration (see, respectively, [2010] EWHC 3010 (Ch) and [2011] EWCA Civ 1124). A video recording of Lord Neuberger delivering the court's opinion is available below:

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