No discount to director in connection with bankruptcy-related disqualification

The usual period of bankruptcy-related disqualification is three years. Danish case law has developed the practice that the defendant director gets a discount of one year on the usual period of the bankruptcy-related disqualification of three years if the ruling on the bankruptcy-related disqualification is made more than one year after the issue of the bankruptcy order. In the decision the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court established that despite the fact that the ruling was made about 18 months after the order, the defendant was not to be given a discount on the period of the bankruptcy-related disqualification as about six months of the case processing time could be attributed to the defendant.

In the case, the trustee had claimed that the company's former manager was to be subject to a bankruptcy-related disqualification of three years. Bankruptcy proceedings were commenced against the company on 1 September 2015 and the ruling in the case about bankruptcy-related disqualification was made on 24 February 2017, which means that the ruling was made about 18 months after bankruptcy proceedings were commenced against the company.

Important parts of the company's bookkeeping material had not been handed over to the trustee during the estate administration and were only produced in the case by the defendant on 11 July 2016, about seven and a half months after the commencement of the proceedings. The result was a significant increase in the number of the trustee's allegations in the case.

The Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court ruled in favour of the trustee and found that there was a basis for making the former director subject to bankruptcy-related disqualification because the director's conduct had been grossly irresponsible in several respects. In its ruling the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court also found that about six months of the case processing time could be attributed to the defendant, which was why the defendant was made subject to bankruptcy-related disqualification for three years despite the fact that the ruling was made more than one year after the issue of the order.

Attorney Pernille Bigaard was the trustee of the estate and the case about the bankruptcy-related disqualification was conducted before the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court by Assistant Attorney Marlene Deleuran Hedegård.

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