Claims of passing off are rare in the British Virgin Islands and a recent attempt to bring a BVI action in relation to goodwill held outside the jurisdiction has failed.(1)

The claimants were Egyptian private equity investors with over $516 million in assets under management and a long, respected track record in development and management of various investment projects in the Egyptian market.

The defendants included a former employee of the claimants and the companies through which he operated.

The recent BVI Court of Appeal decision in KMG International NV v DP Holding SA serves as a useful reminder to keep an eye on the clock when seeking the appointment of liquidators to a company in the BVI.

Justice R. Graesser of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta (Court) recently released his decision in Royal Bank of Canada v.Reid-Built Homes Ltd. (Decision), where he held that the Court has the discretion, but not the obligation, to grant a super priority for receivers’ fees and disbursements ahead of the claims of secured creditors.

This is the third instalment in a series examining large retail insolvencies in Canada from the perspective of various stakeholders. This article discusses insolvencies from the perspective of corporate parents of distressed Canadian retailers.

On 6 November 2017 the BVI Commercial Court, sitting in St Lucia, placed Sherbrooke Group Limited (Sherbrooke) into liquidation. Mark McDonald and Michael Leeds of Grant Thornton were appointed as Sherbrooke’s liquidators.

Jurisprudence canadienne récente en matière d’insolvabilité : ce que les prêteurs doivent savoir Linc Rogers, Caitlin McIntyre et Ilia Kravtsov L’issue d’un certain nombre de dossiers d’insolvabilité portés devant les tribunaux de diverses provinces du Canada en 2017 pourrait avoir une incidence importante sur les droits de réalisation et de recouvrement des prêteurs commerciaux dans le cadre de procédures de restructuration et d’insolvabilité.

Alberta Energy has increasingly been targeting insolvent lessees and the historical gas cost allowances claimed by those insolvent companies.

Alberta Energy deducts allowances for capital and operating costs and custom processing fees incurred and paid in Alberta for compressing, gathering and processing its royalty share of gas and gas products through the Crown share of allowable costs. Accordingly, there are three allowances available from the Crown: capital cost, operating cost and custom processing fee allowance.

Peter Ferrer, of the British Virgin Islands office of Harneys, reviews forum shopping, Chapter 11 protection and just and equitable winding up, with an in-depth look at the Pacific Andes saga is the practice of choosing the most favourable jurisdiction in which to bring a claim. It is often used as a pejorative – a form of jurisdictional gamesmanship – but in principle, there is nothing wrong in seeking to have a case heard in the forum which is most favourable to the client.

Srie sur l'insolvabilit des dtaillants au Canada : Le point de vue des fournisseurs

Linc Rogers et Aryo Shalviri

In 2017, a number of insolvency cases were litigated, in various provinces across Canada, which may materially affect the realization and recovery rights of commercial lenders in restructuring and insolvency proceedings. This article summarizes the core issue of importance to lenders in each of these cases and provides an update on their appeal status.

November 2, 2017 September 11, 2017

INTEGRITY OF COURT-ORDERED SALE PROCESS

Squestre de Gestion EGR inc. et Lemieux Nolet inc., syndics de faillite et gestionnaires