Dans un arrêt du 31 janvier 2019, la Cour suprême ordonne qu’une société pétrolière faillie s'acquitte d’abord de ses obligations de remise en état des puits de pétrole abandonnés, avant de procéder à tout paiement en faveur de ses créanciers. Une décision qui suscite des réactions opposées d’un bout à l’autre du pays, puisque, d’une part, elle donne clairement préséance à la protection de l’environnement en cas de faillite, mais que, d’autre part, elle risque d’influencer les décisions d’affaires dans des industries où des risques environnementaux sont en jeu.

In McGoey (Re), 2019 ONSC 80, Justice Penny of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice found trusts over two properties held by a bankrupt were void as shams. In his decision, Justice Penny noted that had he not found the trusts to be sham trusts, he would still have set them aside as fraudulent conveyances, making us ask: “what is the difference between a sham trust and a fraudulent conveyance?”

1. Introduction

With the growing concern over the environmental impacts of commercial activity, provinces have enacted and expanded environmental legislation in order to hold companies accountable for the costs of remediating the environmental harm they cause. However, regulators have struggled with how to hold companies accountable for environmental harm when they become insolvent. For many years, clean-up obligations have been treated as unsecured claims lacking priority over secured claims. On January 31, 2019, the Supreme Court o

The Alberta Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal brought by three municipalities (the “Municipalities”) seeking status as secured creditors entitled to special priority for payment of linear property taxes.

The Alberta Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal brought by three municipalities (the "Municipalities") seeking status as secured creditors entitled to special priority for payment of linear property taxes.

In Northern Sunrise County v Virginia Hills Oil Corp, 2019 ABCA 61, the primary issue was whether the Municipal Government Act ("MGA") grants to an Alberta municipality a special lien for linear property taxes, which lien ranks senior in priority to contractual security interests if the tax debtor is not bankrupt or subject to other insolvency proceedings.

Background

The Defendant was a dentist who had executed a personal guarantee on July 7, 2011 in favour of the Plaintiff (the "Bank") in order to secure payment of the indebtedness of the Defendant's professional corporation. The Bank made a demand for payment on the guarantee, and subsequently brought an action against the Defendant (the "First Action").The Bank was successful on a motion for summary judgment and judgment was granted against the Defendant.

Control to Serbian Creditors- the amendments to the Serbian Insolvency Act

The recent amendments to the Serbian Insolvency Act enacted 9 December 2018 have placed more control into creditors’ hands allowing them to suggest the insolvency administrator to be appointed, as well as providing less restrictive provisions on the proposers of reorganisation proposals.

Background

Virginia Hills Oil Corp. was a small publicly traded oil producer with assets in north central Alberta. Some of its assets were held through its subsidiary Dolomite Energy Inc. (collectively the "Debtors"). The Debtors' main secured creditors were the Alberta Treasury Branches and the Bank of Nova Scotia (the "Banks"). The Debtors also owned a pipeline that passed through three municipalities (the "Municipalities").

On February 12, 2019, the Court of Appeal of Alberta (Court) released its long-anticipated decision in Northern Sunrise County v. Virginia Hills Oil Corp. (Virginia Hills).