With its decision of 18 December 2014 the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) rejected interim relief measures against the implementation of the insolvency plan for the publishing house Suhrkamp Verlag (2 BvR 1978/13). Therefore, the insolvency proceedings regarding the assets of Suhrkamp Verlag GmbH & Co., Kommanditgesellschaft can be completed as planned and the decision to change the legal form of the company into a stock corporation with the name Suhrkamp Verlag AG may be entered into the commercial register.
According to the Court’s decision within the framework of section 32 Federal Constitutional Court Act, the disadvantages threatening Suhrkamp Verlag as well as its creditors and authors in the event of a further delay of the implementation of the insolvency plan outweighed the disadvantages incurred by Medienholding AG, as complainant, due to the transformation of its limited partner's interest with its considerable participatory rights into the interest of a shareholder of a stock corporation. In particular, Medienholding AG was not able to sufficiently demonstrate that it would incur financial disadvantages; nor could it sufficiently set forth alternative reorganisation options for Suhrkamp Verlag.
The insolvency plan, which the creditors accepted on 22 October 2013 and which provides for, among other things, the change of legal form into a stock corporation for the reorganisation of Suhrkamp Verlag, had become final and binding as a result of the Berlin District Court’s decision of 20 October 2014 in accordance with section 253(4) German Insolvency Code. Medienholding AG, as minority limited partner, had then filed for the Federal Constitutional Court to suspend the implementation of the insolvency plan by way of interim relief measures until a final decision on its constitutional complaint was reached. Following the Federal Constitutional Court’s temporary order on 4 December 2014, Gleiss Lutz took the opportunity - granted pursuant to section 94(3) Federal Constitutional Court Act - to file a brief on behalf of Suhrkamp Verlag.
Suhrkamp Verlag is being advised by the following Gleiss Lutz team: Dr. Jörn Wöbke (partner, corporate/dispute resolution, Hamburg), Dr. Andreas Spahlinger (partner, insolvency/dispute resolution, Stuttgart), Dr. Burghard Hildebrandt (partner, public law/dispute resolution, Düsseldorf), Dr. Matthias Tresselt (partner as of 1 January 2015, insolvency/dispute resolution, Stuttgart), Dr. Daniel Heck (corporate/dispute resolution/constitutional law, Hamburg), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (public law/dispute resolution, Düsseldorf), Prof. Dr. Michael Uechtritz (partner, constitutional law, Stuttgart), Dr. Christian Mencke, Dr. Fabian Walla (both corporate/dispute resolution, Hamburg), Matthias Müller (corporate/insolvency, Stuttgart), Dr. Eva Koch, Dr. André Lippert (both public law, Düsseldorf), Dr. Johann Wagner (partner, insolvency tax law, Hamburg).
Since 2013 Gleiss Lutz has been advising the companies of Suhrkamp Verlag in various insolvency plan proceedings in self-administration as well as in additional court proceedings in connection with the shareholder dispute.
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