Running a family-owned farm is not easy work under the best of economic circumstances, and it can be nearly impossible when times are tough. More than 30 years ago, during the mid-1980s, John Cougar Mellencamp’s mournful song “Rain on the Scarecrow” discussed the epidemic of family farm foreclosures hitting the American Heartland. Thankfully, the overall family farm economy is not at that crisis level today, but storm clouds are rumbling.

The ongoing priority dispute between deemed trusts created under federal “fiscal statutes” (being the Income Tax Act, the Canada Pension Plan Act and the Employment Insurance Act) and priming charges arising under restructuring and insolvency legislatio

The Québec Court of Appeal confirmed that unpaid post-filing suppliers, which had neither sought a court-ordered charge to secure their post-filing claims nor availed themselves of their right to stop supplying goods or services to the debtor, cannot claim an implicit priority on the proceeds of sales of assets in proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act proceedings.

Background: going-concern sales of optometry clinics

The federal government’s budget implementation bill, Bill C-86[1], received Royal Assent on December 14, 2018. An aspect of the budget implementation bill is the amendment of various legislation, including the Patent Act, the Trademarks Act, as part of the government’s implementation of its intellectual property (“IP”) strategy.

Congress approved, and earlier this month the President signed, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 which streamlines existing rules governing the efforts of small businesses to restructure successfully under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The law effectively makes it more difficult for creditors to contest small business Chapter 11 cases, but it also provides creditors in all bankruptcy cases several major benefits through changes to the preference laws.

Subchapter V of Chapter 11.

Military veterans often pay a heavy toll for their service from a physical, emotional and even financial standpoint. A new federal law— the Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need Act of 2019 or the HAVEN Act— aims to address the latter hardship, providing disabled military veterans with greater protections in bankruptcy proceedings.

In Yukon (Government of) v. Yukon Zinc Corporation, 2019 YKSC 39 (“Yukon Zinc”), the Yukon Supreme Court recently lifted a stay of proceedings imposed in proposal proceedings commenced in British Columbia by Yukon Zinc, a Vancouver-based mining company whose principal asset is the Wolverine Mine in Yukon.

Anyone who hasn’t heard about the “student loan crisis” in the U.S. hasn’t been paying attention. U.S. student loan debt is estimated to range from between $1.2 and $1.6 trillion with more than seven million borrowers in default. On an individual level, a graduate of a four-year college who took out a loan to get through currently owes, on average, $28,000. Average debt for a student who completed graduate school, as you would expect, is greater, and can range from $50,000 to more than $100,000.

This article originally was published in the February 2019 issue of the ABI Journal.

The Ontario Court of Appeal determines when it is appropriate to vest out a royalty interest as part of an insolvency proceeding

The Importance of the Decision