During the spring of 2012, the Canadian Appeals Monitor posted a five-part series on the Supreme Court’s judgments in Van Breda, Black, and
Morris Kaiser’s trustee in bankruptcy, Soberman Inc., thought it smelled a rat: while claiming to be impecunious, Kaiser appeared to be living a life of ‘some means’, which included trips to casinos in the US. Kaiser claimed he was drawing advances on the credit card of a buddy, Cecil Bergman, but the trustee suspected the whole thing was a front to shield Kaiser’s assets from his creditors.
On February 1, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released its much-awaited decision in theIndalex case.1 While the central issue in Indalex was the priority of wind-up deficiencies in defined benefit pension plans versus court-ordered debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing charges under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) (CCAA), the SCC also considered whether claims for wind-up deficiencies are covered by deemed trusts under the Ontario Pension Benefits Act (PBA).
In 2011-0427101C6 (released this week), the CRA was asked whether a creditor’s acquisition of an interest in a debtor-partnership could qualify as a “seizure” of the debtor-partnership’s property for purposes of s. 79.1. Section 79.1 contains rules (often favorable) for a creditor where the creditor has “seized” property of a debtor as a result of a foreclosure, conditional sale repossession, or similar transaction.
For some, environmental liability is akin to a game of hot potato. In other words, no one wants to be the one left holding the potato when the music stops playing - otherwise they could be facing significant obligations to remedy contaminated lands. As remediation costs can be significant, owners, purchasers and creditors must tread carefully when dealing with contaminated real estate.
On February 13, 2013, the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education announced temporary solvency relief for private sector defined benefit pension plans that can be viewedhere. The measures allow employers up to 15 years to fund solvency deficiencies reported between January 3, 2011 and January 2, 2014, rather than the usual five year period.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario's (the "OCA") decision in Re Indalex Ltd.1 was decried by professionals in pension, banking and insolvency practices. On February 1, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada (the "SCC" or the "Court") overturned the OCA's decision.
INTRODUCTION
In theory, when liquidating a succession, publication formalities must be observed so that the various creditors can present themselves and claim their due. This formality also gives the successors an overall view of the assets and liabilities of the succession before deciding whether or not to accept it.