Hi Nigel
It would appear that Aqualia, a water company, have petitioned the Murcian Courts to liquidate Huma Med. The following is a 'report' of the proceedure in such a case (copied from a forwarded email, I have just received).
AQUALIA´S PETITION TO INITIATE HUMA MEDITERRANEO INSOLVENCY PROCEEDINGS
1.) General concepts.
The proceedings are a legal procedure that takes place when a legal or natural person is in a situation of insolvency (in this case we are dealing with a legal person, as Huma Mediterraneo S.L. is a commercial company). A state of insolvency means that a common debtor, or debtor with several creditors, is unable to meet his liabilities on a regular basis.
If the petition to initiate insolvency proceedings is filed by a creditor, he should state in the request the title and facts in which it is based. Also he should explain the origin, nature, amount owed, the expiration date of the credit and the current status of it. Finally, the creditor have to include to his initial request the documents and evidences of his credit.
The applicable jurisdiction for initiating and holding insolvency proceedings is the Commercial Court in the area where the debtor's main interests are located. In our case thi s is the Commercial Court of Murcia, which is where the creditor has filed the petition for insolvency.
2.) Brief outline of the proceedings.
We will now give a brief outline of the proceedings, although we will not analyse any ancillary issues that may affect acceptance of the petition. The most important stages of the proceedings are as follows: 1st: Filing a petition to initiate insolvency proceedings; 2nd: Leave to proceed - Insolvency proceedings / Administrators´ report; 3rd: Creditors´ meeting and proposal for an arrangement - Vote; 4th: Liquidation if an agreement is not reached.
2.A.) Filing a petition to initiate insolvency proceedings.
This point has been covered in the general issues (concepts) described in point 1 above.
2.B.) Leave to proceed - Insolvency proceedings / Administrators´ report.
The insolvency court order should contain the following:
1st: Specify whether the bankruptcy is voluntary or compulsory, and if applicable, whether the debtor has applied for liquidation.
2nd: The effects on the powers of the debtor to administer and dispose of its estate, and the appointment and powers of the insolvency administrators.
3rd: Where applicable, the precautionary measures that the judge has deemed necessary to maintain preserve and administer the debtor's estate until the insolvency administrators have accepted the appointments.
4th: The notice of insolvency proceedings informing creditors that claims should be lodged with the insolvency panel within one month after the date on which the last notice is published, as stipulated in the insolvency order. Under section 1, article 23 of the Insolvency Act, this notice must appear in the "Spanish Official State Bulletin", a high-circulation daily newspaper in the province where the majority of the debtor's interests are located, and a high-circulation daily newspaper in the province where it is domiciled. The notice sh ould give full information on the insolvency proceedings, and on how to lodge a claim. It should be published in the "Spanish Official State Bulletin" and, if applicable, other official newspapers, as soon as possible.
Under article 5 of the Civil Code the time periods are measured by months, and consequently will be calculated using dates.
5th: The announcements which must be published to publicise the decision to initiate insolvency proceedings.
The court order comes into effect immediately, and is followed by an initial stage, which comprises the procedures given in the first four Headings of the Act (Heading I -Initiating Insolvency Proceedings, Heading II - Insolvency Panel, Heading III - Effects of Initiating Insolvency Proceedings, and Heading IV - Insolvency Panel's Report, and determination of the assets and liabilities in the insolvent estate). It is enforceable although it is not final.
The insolvency panel will immediately contact all the creditors whose name and address appear in the insolvency proceedings to notify them of the court order, and inform them that they should lodge their claims in the way specified in article 85 of the Insolvency Act. As we have mentioned above, this stipulates that claims should be lodged within one month, starting from the last date on which the notice was published, in accordance with the court order.
We must stress that the time period for lodging a claim or becoming a party in the suit is one month, and that this is calculated by dates. For example, if the notice is published on 1 June, the period will expire on 1 July.
Notice of the court order will be sent to all the parties in the proceedings.
Under article 74 of the Insolvency Act, the insolvency administrators will have a two-month period to prepare their report, starting from the date on which two of them accept their appointment. The judge can extend this period for a maximum period of one m onth at the request of the insolvency panel, as long as the request, which should cite extraordinary circumstances as the reason, is submitted before the deadline has expired. We must stress again that the period is calculated from one date to another.
The insolvency panel's report will contain:
1st: An analysis of the debtor's circumstances and the information contained in the annual report.
2nd: State of the debtor's accounts and, if applicable, assessment of the accounts, financial statements, reports and annual report.
If the debtor did not present the annual accounts for the tax year prior to the year in which the insolvency proceedings are initiated, they will be prepared by the insolvency panel. The panel will use information obtained from the debtor's books and documents, information provided by the debtor, and any other information obtained within a maximum period of fifteen days.
3rd: A report containing the principal decisions an d actions of the insolvency panel.
The following information will be attached to the report:
1st An inventory of the assets of the insolvent estate; 2nd List of creditors; 3rd An assessment of the arrangement proposals which have been presented, if applicable.
The report will conclude with a review by the insolvency administrators of the debtor's estate, and any information or circumstances that it deems relevant to the remainder of the insolvency proceedings.
2.C.) Creditors´ meeting and arrangement proposal- Vote.
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss and vote on arrangement proposals (potential agreements). The proposal put forward by the debtor will be discussed first, and if it is not accepted, the proposals put forward by the creditors, starting with the proposal put forward by the creditor with the largest claim, and finishing with the creditor with the smallest claim.
In order for an arrangement proposal to be accepted by the meeting, it must be approved by at least half the unsecured creditors.
Notwithstanding the provisions given in the preceding paragraph, when the proposal consists of paying all unsecured creditors in a maximum period of three years, or immediately paying all the overdue unsecured claims with a debt reduction of less than twenty per cent, the proposal in question will be accepted if more unsecured creditors vote in favour of the proposal than against.
The debtor has the option of making an arrangement proposal in advance. In order to be accepted it must be approved by creditors whose claims are equivalent to at least half the unsecured claims in the insolvency proceedings.
For the purposes of calculating voting majorities, preferential creditors who vote in favour of a proposal are considered to be unsecured creditors. Preferential creditors are: mortgage-backed claims (banks); claims secured by pledges granted in a public document; workers´ salaries, the Treasury Department, Social Security claims.
2.D.) Liquidation.
Under the new insolvency regime, the purpose of the insolvency proceedings is not liquidation. Instead, the Act considers that the best outcome is for the parties to agree on an arrangement, and it contains a series of measures to promote this end. However, the debtor may expressly choose a liquidation procedure or, alternatively, under certain circumstances, either the debtor or the Court may be legally obliged to apply for liquidation.
In all these cases, liquidation is a separate stage which, in the event of any of the circumstances specified in the Act, starts after the initial stage has finished, and after the assets and liabilities in the insolvent estate have been determined. The liquidation stage consists of a series of enforceable, relatively flexible, measures whose aim is to realise the debtor's assets in order to pay the creditors in the way that is stipulated in the Act. Th erefore, liquidation takes place at this stage of the proceedings, and not at the discretion of the insolvency panel, although this does not exclude the possibility that some of the assets and rights in the insolvent estate may have been realised during the insolvency proceedings.
3.) Conclusion.
It is essential to follow the insolvency proceedings in order to know when the petition is accepted by the Court. This is very important because the periods for becoming a party in the case, or lodging a claim, start to run on the date that the Leave to Proceed is granted, and the court order to publish the notices and announcements is issued.
In our opinion, the buyers could be in two different situations:
1.- If the sales agreements entered into between the insolvent company and the clients have been already terminated by a Court decision (ruling) and therefore the contracts are not in force, the Clients / Purchasers, have a due and payable liquid.
T his is the usual situation of the most of our clients. Consequently, the clients who have obtained a ruling from the Courts stating that the purchase contract has been cancelled are debtors of the insolvent party. The clients are creditors because they can claim the amounts (credit) approved in the ruling.
When considering the above, the provisions of Chapter III, Heading III, articles 53 and 55 of the Insolvency Act should be taken into account.
Article 53. Definitive rulings and arbitration awards
1. The definitive judgments and arbitration awards issued before or after the insolvency is declared, bind to the Judge who knows the process.
2. The provisions of this Article shall be without prejudice to any action that assists the Court Administrators for proceeding against the agreements and arbitration procedures in case there are evidences of fraud.
We consider that the most of the buyers should be in this situation because practically all of them have already taken legal actions against the company and they have a ruling from the Courts which has declared the cancellation of the purchase contract.
2.- However, if the sales agreements entered into between the insolvent company and the clients are not terminated, and are therefore still in force, we consider that the Clients / Purchasers, do not have a due and payable liquid claim because the clients are both creditors and debtors of the insolvent party: Creditors because they can claim a residential property, and debtors because they owe the remainder of the sale price
In that case, the provisions of Chapter III, Heading III, articles 61 and 62 of the Insolvency Act should be taken into account.
CHAPTER III. EFFECTS ON CONTRACTS
Article 61. Validity of contracts with reciprocal obligations
1. In contracts entered into by the debtor, if one of the parties has complied with all their obligations when the insolven cy proceedings are initiated, and the other party has not yet complied with some or all of their reciprocal obligations, the claim, or debt, of the debtor will be included, if appropriate, in the assets or liabilities of the insolvent estate.
2. The initiation of insolvency proceedings, in itself, does not affect the validity of contracts with reciprocal obligations pending performance, whether the insolvent party's or the other party's obligations. The considerations that the insolvent party is liable for will be payable from the insolvent estate.
Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the insolvency panel in the case of suspension, or the insolvent party in the event of it going into administration, may request that the contract be terminated if they deem it appropriate as far as the insolvency is concerned. In these cases, the judge will summon the insolvent party, the insolvency panel and the other party and, if all the parties agree, declar e the contract terminated. If the parties do not agree, the differences are settled at an ancillary insolvency proceeding and the judge will decide on whether the contract will be terminated and, if applicable, on the appropriate reimbursement as well as the compensation payable from the insolvent estate.
3. Clauses that lay down the right to terminate or cancel a contract merely due to either of the parties being declared insolvent shall be regarded as if they did not exist.
Article 62. Termination for breach of contract
1. The initiation of insolvency proceedings does not affect the power to terminate the contracts referred to in section 2 of the preceding article, when there are obligations pending performance by either party. If the contract is a continuing performance contract the complying party is entitled to terminate it if the breach occurred prior to the initiation of insolvency proceedings.
2. In this case the termination action mu st be brought before the insolvency judge and will be judged through an ancillary insolvency proceeding.
3. Even though there are grounds for terminating the contract, the judge is entitled to rule that the contract continue should it be in the interest of the insolvency proceedings. Any considerations owing or owed by the insolvent party will be included in the insolvent estate.
4. After the contract has been terminated, obligations pending performance will be extinguished. With regard to matured obligations, the claims of creditors who have complied with their contractual obligations will be included in the proceedings, provided that the insolvent party's breach of contract occurred prior to the initiation of insolvency proceedings. If the breach took place subsequently, the complying party's claim will be payable from the insolvent estate. In all cases the claim will include compensation for damages, if applicable.
The aim of this report has been to provide an overall picture of the situation, and briefly explain insolvency proceedings.
This completes my report, which is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief, in Murcia on the thirty first of October, of two thousand and twelve