Importance of a company name It is often thought that things are what they are no matter what name you give them, but in business a name can be important. Perhaps you have put a lot of money and effort over time into branding and don’t want to lose the benefits this has achieved. Perhaps…
In the recent case of Innovate Pharmaceuticals Ltd v University of Portsmouth Higher Education Corp [2024] the courts considered limitation of liability and exclusion clauses and how they are interpreted by the courts. It is an interesting case because although these cases are specific to their own facts, in this case the wording of the…
We are starting to see a trend of clients coming to us in desperation because either receivers have been appointed or the threat of receivership is hanging over them. Some of the smaller financial institutions appear to be adopting a bullish (some might even go so far as to say a brutish) approach to appointing…
The terms of a settlement agreement are nearly always hard fought and when the terms are agreed and the agreement signed, clients are always relieved as it invariably signals the end of a stressful dispute. But what if the terms of the settlement agreement are not what you thought they were? For example, something you…
Joint venture activity We are increasingly seeing more joint venture activity which is very positive given the prevailing economic climate. It is heartening to know that the entrepreneurs are out there looking at opportunities and importantly doing deals. We have particularly seen an increase in clients providing services to the healthcare sector. The details of…
In the recent case of Brake and another v Chedington Court Estate Ltd [2023], the Supreme Court decided that the respondents as bankrupts had no right to challenge transactions that had been entered into by their trustee in bankruptcy as they were not creditors and after the distribution of the estate there was unlikely to…
Creditor’s duty In the recent case of Hunt v Singh, the court considered the question as to when a director’s duty to take into account the interests of creditors arises as the Supreme Court has done in the case of BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA. However, in the case of Hunt v Singh, the…
In commercial contracts and now increasingly in consumer clauses one of the standard clauses is to include a cap on liability in the event of a claim. Increasingly in commercial contracts there are multiple caps with separate financial limits applying to each claim rather than a single aggregate cap. In the case of multiple caps…
The Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Denaxe Limited v Cooper & Anor is an important one for insolvency office-holders and trustees seeking court approval for a significant transaction, typically a commercial decision to sell business assets as a going concern. In this case, receivers sought and obtained the court’s approval in June 2019 to sell…
In the recent case of Pretoria Energy Company (Chittering) Ltd v Blankney Estates Ltd [2023], the Court of Appeal held that the Heads of Terms in this case did not constitute a binding contract. Facts of the case The appellant, Pretoria Energy Company (Pretoria) operate anaerobic digestion plants which produce biogas and electricity from organic…
