On 18 January 2017, the Court of Appeal of Luxembourg dealing
with commercial matters reversed the decision of the 15th chamber
of the District Court of Luxembourg dated 1 April 2015, in relation
to the permitted distribution of dividends to certain policyholders
of Excell Life International S.A., a Luxembourg life-insurance
company put in judicial liquidation on 12 July 2012
("Excell Life").
The merit of this judgement is to provide guidance as to the
scope of the concept of patrimoine distinct embodied under
Article 39 of the law of 6 December 1991 on the insurance sector
("Insurance Sector
Law")12. The main question for
the Court of Appeal was to determine whether - as retained by the
Luxembourg District Court - each insurance policy constitutes a
specific pool of underlying assets entitling the relevant
policyholder to specific payments in relation therewith, or as the
claimants argued, the concept of a distinct pool of assets under
the Insurance Sector Law must
