The duties of directors in financially precarious companies: Mary Young & Adam Deacock examine the Supreme Court’s judgment in BTI v Sequana
- Despite its billing as ‘momentous’, the Supreme Court’s judgment in BTI v Sequana is unlikely to alter the actions of a prudent director managing a company in an uncertain financial position.
Many column inches have been spent discussing the Supreme Court decision in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA and others [2022] UKSC 25, [2022] All ER (D) 11 (Oct). One of the Supreme Court judges herself described it as ‘momentous’. Does the judgment in fact go beyond the status quo or offer any clarity or assistance for directors managing a company whose financial health is uncertain, or for insolvency practitioners looking for possible recoveries from directors?
Background to the case
AWA was the wholly owned subsidiary of Sequana SA (‘Sequana’). AWA had stopped trading and was subject to contingent indemnity liabilities in respect of clean-up costs and damages claims arising out of river pollution in the United States (the ‘liabilities’).
AWA’s
