Commercial Law and Insolvency
What is tested
Act No. 33/2020 Sb. (zákon o obchodních korporacích, effective 1 January 2021, replacing No. 90/2012 Sb.) and Act No. 182/2006 Sb. (insolvenční zákon). Questions link corporate governance and personal liability with the effect of insolvency on pending enforcement.
Core rules
- Types: veřejná obchodní společnost, komanditní společnost, s.r.o., a.s. and družstvo; an s.r.o. needs a minimum contribution of CZK 1, an a.s. a share capital of CZK 2,000,000 or EUR 80,000. Registration in the obchodní rejstřík is constitutive.
- A member of the statutory body must act with péče řádného hospodáře; breach gives rise to liability for damage and possible disqualification by a court. If he fails to file the insolvency petition without undue delay after learning of the company's insolvency, he may be liable for the shortfall.
- Úpadek: platební neschopnost - several creditors with monetary claims more than 30 days overdue and inability to pay (§ 3); předlužení where liabilities exceed assets. Hrozící úpadek opens moratorium and reorganisation.
- Solutions: konkurs, reorganizace, oddlužení for non-entrepreneurs, plus special regimes.
- A creditor's petition must be accompanied by a přihláška of its claim; the debtor files a list of assets and liabilities.
- Effects: once insolvency is declared, individual enforcement may neither be ordered nor carried out (§ 109 IZ); pending executions stop; claims are satisfied through přihlášky; transactions diminishing the estate may be attacked as neúčinné (§ 235 ff.).
Worked example
A supplier holds a final judgment against an s.r.o. and its exekutor has attached the company's bank account. Two days later the court declares úpadek. The attachment loses effect, the exekutor must stop and release what he obtained. The supplier does not lose the claim, but must file a přihláška within the statutory period and pay the registration fee; otherwise the claim is not satisfied in the proceedings.
Traps
Assuming an exekuce continues after úpadek is declared; confusing platební neschopnost with předlužení; forgetting the přihláška of the creditor's own claim; thinking the exekutor ranks ahead of the insolvency administrator.