On August 19, 2014, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice [Commercial List] (Ontario Court) released an important decision regarding the ability of unsecured bondholders to assert a claim for “post-filing” interest in proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) (CCAA). The CCAA is Canada’s principal statute for the restructuring of large insolvent corporations and is similar in effect to Chapter 11 of theUnited States Bankruptcy Code (Bankruptcy Code).

Parent company guarantees and performance bonds are typically used in the construction and engineering industries to provide a developer with some security in the event that the contractor breaches the building or engineering contract or, in some circumstances, upon the contractor's insolvency.

In the current economic climate, contractor default is, unfortunately, even more prevalent in the construction and engineering industries, and so the issues surrounding parent company guarantees and performance bonds are very much in focus for developers.