On October 28, 2013, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) announced that it had reached a settlement with the former directors and officers of Northstar Aerospace whereby those former directors and officers agreed to pay $4.75 million for costs associated with the remediation of contaminated lands owned by the now-bankrupt company. The Environmental Review Tribunal approved the Minutes of Settlement at the hearing held on October 28.
Upon the filing of an appeal of a bankruptcy order, that order is stayed pursuant to section 195 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (“BIA”). In Msi Spergel v. I.F. Propco Holdings (Ontario) 36 Ltd., 2013 ONCA 550, the Ontario Court of Appeal had to decide whether that stay suspends the limitation period applicable to a motion by a trustee to set aside a preferential payment by a bankrupt under s. 95 of the BIA.
In a ground-breaking decision, the Dutch Supreme Court recently found that a foreign bankruptcy trustee may in principle exercise the powers conferred on him under the lex concursus (the law governing the bankruptcy) in the Netherlands as well. Such powers can include the management and disposal of assets located in the Netherlands at the time of the foreign bankruptcy order.
There has recently been a number of successful pre-pack restructurings in the Netherlands. A 'pre-pack' is the term used for the restructuring of a company through a transaction that is prepared as much as possible outside formal insolvency proceedings, and whereby the enterprise survives, but some or all of the company's debt is restructured. The aim of preparing the transaction in advance is to ensure maximum preservation of value. Several structures can be distinguished.
A pre-pack is the term used for the restructuring of a company through a transaction that is prepared as much as possible outside of formal insolvency proceedings, and whereby the enterprise survives but some or all of the company's debt is restructured. The aim of preparing the transaction in advance is to ensure the maximum preservation of value. Several structures can be distinguished.
In a decision rendered on August 15, 2013, the Ontario Court of Appeal in Re Nortel denied a motion for leave to appeal in a CCAA proceeding, reiterating the stringent test for leave to appeal in such circumstances. More importantly for our purposes, the court reiterated the necessity for a motion for leave to adduce fresh evidence where the moving party seeks to rely upon such evidence.
The test for granting leave to appeal in Companies Creditors’ Arrangement Act proceedings is well-settled:
Le 11 juin 2013, la Chambre des députés luxembourgeoise a voté une loi instaurant un droit de revendication en faveur de la personne qui a confié des biens meubles "incorporels" non fongibles à une entreprise qui est tombée en faillite (le dossier parlementaire peut être téléchargé ici). Il ressort des travaux préparatoires qu'une des hypothèses visées est la revendication de données et fichiers stockés via une solution "cloud" (informatique dématérialisée) chez un prestataire tiers.