Articles 2020

Minutes from the March 16th meeting of the Commercial List Users’ Committee (CLUC).

The recent decision in Norcon Marine Services Ltd., (Re), 2019 NLSC 238 (“Norcon”) may have important implications beyond Newfoundland and Labrador. In Norcon, the Court denied an application for a Court-appointed receivership on the basis that the applicant did not demonstrate that a Court-supervised process was “necessary”. In so deciding, among other reasons, the Court put an emphasis on the availability of a private receivership as an adequate alternative avenue of relief.

This article provides a brief primer on some of the employment and labour law issues that come into consideration when a company is involved in insolvency proceedings.

In light of the critical importance of vesting orders, Canadian insolvency and banking professionals were understandably anxious when the Ontario Court of Appeal recently asked for submissions on whether receivership vesting orders can extinguish third party interests in land in the nature of a Gross Overriding Royalty.

In the Star Wars movies, there are points where the Jedi seem to have wiped out the Sith (or vice versa) only to find out that the other has come back to life. Stakeholders, lawyers and insolvency professionals who had seen, or hoped for, the end of the statutory construction lien trust after bankruptcy might be forgiven for feeling like that after January's Court of Appeal for Ontario decision in The Guarantee Company of North America v. Royal Bank of Canada.

Cryptocurrencies have gained considerable momentum in Canada and may ultimately mature into a mainstream asset class.3 Accordingly, policymakers ought to consider the implications of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the Canadian insolvency regime. There is no Canadian jurisprudence or guiding principles dealing directly with cryptocurrencies. However, this paper examines recent American case law, and highlights some of the key issues relevant to insolvency law in Canada.

The winning entry for the 2018 Michael MacNaughton Student Writing Award for Insolvency Law, the article considers the controversial decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal affirming the decision in Redwater Energy Corporation (Re) (2016), 33 Alta LR (6th) 221 (Alta QB).

Early termination fees, or make whole payments, as they are sometimes called, are an integral part of the overall economic arrangement negotiated by lenders. Therefore, lawyers advising secured lenders on strategies for recovery of their indebtedness should be aware that certain seemingly innocuous actions may jeopardize a lender’s entitlement to recover an early termination fee.

The tension between a trustee seeking to facilitate a proposal for the benefit of all creditors and a single creditor being forced to release its rights for the “greater good” was front and center in a recent case before the Supreme Court of British Columbia.