O’Keefe v Caner [2017] EWHC 1105 (Ch)

Summer 2017 #168

This was a trial of the preliminary issue of whether claims made by the joint liquidators of two Jersey-incorporated companies against the respondents were time-barred as a matter of Jersey law.

In the proceedings, the applicants claimed that between 10 April 2007 and 10 June 2008 payments were made of €16m and €18m from ‘Level One’ and ‘Special Opportunity’ respectively, to or for the benefit of the first respondent or companies owned beneficially by him. Those payments were claimed not to have been made in good faith for a legitimate commercial purpose of the companies, and the ...

MF Global UK [2014] EWHC 2222 (Ch)

October 2015 # 153

MFGUK was part of the MF Global group which carried on business as broker-dealers in financial markets throughout the world. The group’s principal operations in London were carried on by MFGUK. It and other companies in the group entered insolvency proceedings in the United States and England on 31 October 2011. Administrators were appointed under the Investment Bank Special Administration Regulations 2011. MFGUM held funds in two different capacities – money for clients as trustee of the client money trust, and money beneficially on its own account. On their appointment, ...

Setchim & anr v Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs & Ors [2014] EWHC 2218 (Ch)

November 2014 #144

The Commonwealth Institute (CIC) (a charitable company limited by guarantee) was placed in members’ voluntary winding-up on 19 July 2007. The CIC had a complex history which dated back to 1887. In the 1950s HM Government (HMG) proposed that the predecessors to the CIC trustees should surrender their lease of their premises in South Kensington (the Kensington building) and move to a new premises at Holland Park. The predecessors of CIC were in receipt of rent and benefited from free utilities (the associated entitlements) under the terms of a sub-lease of the Kensington building. Th...

Re MF Global UK Ltd [2013] EWHC 1655 (Ch)

September 2013 #132

MF Global UK (MFG UK) went into administration and, as a result, all client funds were pooled and needed to be rateably returned to MFG UK’s clients. This had to be done in a timely fashion. There were a significant number of client claims which the administrators had rejected either in full or partially. There were also likely to be a significant number of clients whose details did not appear among MFG UK’s records but who would also have a valid claim. These difficulties meant that any distributions from the pooled trust monies could result in an over-distribution and the a...