Ship sinks. Who will pay up?

An American group with a number of Dutch subsidiaries wished to sell shares back to a fellow shareholder. As the approval of the American parent company was required, I drafted the share purchase agreement in English, to save time and aid efficient communication. The buyer wished to pay

A client with two companies in two different cities realised that one of the two locations was not doing well; the economic situation had caused a drop in sales. His business operated in a sub-sector of the construction industry. He had found a buyer for some of his activities and was keen

A German client was faced with a customer who failed to pay. First the customer avoided my client, then he invented excuses and finally he admitted that he owed money but said that he was unable to settle the debt in a single payment. He wanted to arrange to pay in instalments. What should

My client, who specialised in the import of local beer originating from his native country in Central America, had entered into a joint venture with a Dutch man in order to finance his business. The parties had set up a general partnership as the basis for their joint venture, though they did

Some years ago a German couple came to me for assistance. While holidaying in the Netherlands, a Dutch man had driven into their car. Luckily they were unhurt. However, the costs of repairing their car (removing the dents and partial re-spraying) were significant. Immediately after the

When a foundation doing community work became insolvent, a really nice guy (our client) decided to continue the foundation’s activities through a limited company and purchased the foundation’s fittings and equipment etc. from the liquidator. The community benefited enormously, but

A business partner who frequently takes all the money out of the bank account and transfers it to his own company, refuses to discuss anything and fails to pay tax assessments. These are just some of the problems that my client came to me to seek help with. The partner claimed that he

Someone I had encountered earlier in my legal career came to me because of disagreements with his business partner. They had an online shop that was doing very good business, but they no longer trusted one another. From the accuracy of the sales figures to the choice of suppliers, each

Some time ago, I used a bankruptcy application to collect a debt owing to a client by a lawyer who is a member of a well-known family of attorneys. A court judgment had been issued granting the debt claim and no appeal was made, establishing that the debt claimed was due. One of the supporting

If you don’t have enough money to fund your business yourself, there are various ways to obtain the necessary capital. One of these is to set up a limited partnership. This is a partnership with one or more general partners, who are actively involved in running the business, and one or

A Dutch company I represented had provided services to a German customer. The invoice that was sent to the customer for this work was not paid. As my client’s standard terms and conditions stated that the services were carried out in the Netherlands, under European legislation we were

My client was dissatisfied with the performance of one of her employees. A programme of coaching failed to bring about the desired improvement, so she believed that there was no solution but to terminate his employment contract. When my client discussed the situation with the employee, he

My client owned a house together with his wife who was terminally ill. They could not pay the mortgage anymore. One day, my client walked past an estate agent's office. The estate agent accompanied my client to his house, viewed it in five minutes and made an offer, which my client was to

A communication agency in the Eindhoven area built a complicated website for an antique furniture dealer. Because the dealer refused to cooperate in providing certain data the website could not be completed. On the basis of the recorded order agreements, the communication agency decided to