Rubin and New Cap: Massive UK Supreme Court Ruling on International Insolvency, Enforcement and Jurisdiction

Rubin & Anor (Joint Receivers and Managers of the Consumers Trust) v Eurofinance SA & Ors [2010] EWCA Civ 895 and New Cap Reinsurance Corporation Ltd & Anor v Grant & Ors [2011] EWCA Civ 971 were interesting cases and threw up important issues in international insolvency law. The UK Supreme Court has decided these cases as Rubin & Anor v Eurofinance SA & Ors [2012] UKSC 46. Broadly, the court’s judgment shed much needed light whether a foreign court’s order or judgment to set aside anterior transactions such as preferences or transactions at an undervalue (or avoidance proceedings) were (1) recognisable and enforceable in England and Wales and (2) enforceable through the international assistance provision of the UN Convention on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”) Model Law – which is implemented through the generally applicable Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 (“CBIR”) – or the assistance provisions of section 426 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (“IA86”) which applied to a limited number of countries including Australia. The Supreme Court held that the Dicey Rule, set out below at the end of this post, which arises from the operation of common law and  Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933  (“the 1933 Act”), applied to foreign judgments in avoidance proceedings in insolvency.

Background in the Court of Appeal

I. Rubin & Anor (Joint Receivers and Managers of the Consumers Trust) v Eurofinance SA & Ors [2010] EWCA Civ 895

Rubin and others, the appellants (A), were receivers who appealed against Nicholas Strauss QC’s [2009] EWHC 2129 (Ch) decision to dismiss their application for enforcement of a New York judgment against Eurofinance and others, the respondents (R) who cross-appealed against the recognition of the New York proceedings as foreign main proceedings and the recognition of the appointment therein of A as foreign representatives. R had created a trust, operating under English law, and conducted a sales promotion scheme in Canada and the US. Money from the scheme received by the trust was distributed to R and others.