Consideration, Characterisation, Evaluation: Transactions at an Undervalue after 'Phillips v Brewin Dolphin'

Abstract:     
This paper takes the opportunity, presented by the House of Lords' decision in Phillips v Brewin Dolphin, to examine the law governing the reversal of transactions at an undervalue entered into by a company which then becomes insolvent. The paper discusses the sequence in which issues related to ascertaining whether a transaction had been at an undervalue are to be approached, the proposition that contracts somehow "linked" with each other can be taken together as constituting a single "transaction", and the prior question about when such contracts should be considered "linked" in the first place. Finally, the paper detects something of a tendency in the case law to use the notion of a transaction at an undervalue to brush aside inconveniences arising from the peculiarities in the way certain cases have been pleaded. Notably, it suggests that Phillips v Brewin Dolphin might not have involved any transaction at an undervalue at basall.

Keywords: bankruptcy; undervalue transactions

JEL Classification: G33, K22, K42

Accepted Paper Series