3PB’s Daniel Brown and Rebecca Farrell review court decision on Carluccio’s administration

23rd April 2020

Following the recent decision of Re Debenhams Retail Ltd (In Administration) [2020] EWHC 921 (Ch) which applied Re Carluccio’s Limited [2020] EWHC 886 (Ch), 3PB’s specialist Employment and Commercial Barristers Daniel BrownDaniel BrownCall: 2012 and Rebecca FarrellRebecca FarrellCall: 2016 join forces to review the Carluccio’s decision.

Daniel Brown and Rebecca Farrell provide an analysis of this decision which serves to provide guidance to joint administrators who wished to retain employees under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme but only if the costs could be met by the Government under the scheme and did not cause the insolvent company to incur greater liabilities.

The article provides:

• a quick guide to administration;
• a summary of the facts and issues;
• an overview of the employment law issues including whether the relevant employment contracts had been validly varied following letters sent to employees;
• an overview of the insolvency law issues including under what insolvency mechanism funds received by the company could be paid as wages to the employees in priority to other claims in the administration; and
• some general comment on the court’s decision

To read the full article please click here.