On October 13, 2015, the Court of Appeal for Ontario (the “Court”) dismissed the so-called “interest stops rule” appeal in the Nortel matter,^[1] thereby confirming that the rule applies in proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (the “CCAA”). The Court’s decision also appears to eliminate any suggestion that the rule only applies to so-called “liquidating” CCAA proceedings.

Factoring transactions, in which a buyer purchases outright or acquires an interest in a seller’s accounts receivable, are becoming increasingly common. Initially, the buyer must determine whether the transaction is to be recourse or non-recourse to the seller. In other words, can the buyer seek a remedy against the seller if the receivable is bad, or doesn’t pay, or does the buyer bear the entire credit risk of the deal, irrespective of whether the receivable is good? Both recourse and non-recourse transactions raise a handful of interesting considerations in bankruptcy situations.

Introduction

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently affirmed the decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in ReNortel Networks Corporation that the common law interest stops rule applies in proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. The court also clarified that parties retain the right to provide for the consensual payment of post-filing interest in a Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act plan of reorganisation.

35820     Alberta (Attorney General) v. Moloney

Constitutional law — Division of powers — Federal paramountcy — Bankruptcy and insolvency

Appeal from a judgment of the Alberta Court of Appeal (2014 ABCA 68), affirming a decision of Moen J. (2012 ABQB 644).

What do a car crash in Alberta, a delinquent farm mortgage in Saskatchewan and an unpaid highway toll ticket in Ontario have in common?

They all ended up in the Supreme Court of Canada.

In August I presented on cross-border insolvency at the joint Federal Court of Australia and Law Council of Australia conference on corporations law. The audience consisted of over 30 Federal Court judges and a range of other experienced corporate and insolvency lawyers.

FI and D&O Since our last update, there have been significant developments in the FI and D&O landscape. November saw the first ever UK deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) announced between the SFO and Standard Bank. The DPA process has been available but unused since 2014 so the judgment and the SFO’s comments thereafter provided some much needed guidance on what the process involved. Significantly, weight was placed on Standard Bank’s early self-reporting and cooperation.

When a company files for bankruptcy, employees are faced with uncertainty on a number of issues. Everything from outstanding wages to benefit entitlements are suddenly at risk. Further, when a company becomes insolvent, employees are often laid off in circumstances that fail to satisfy statutory or common law notice period entitlements. However, under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (“BIA”), employees are often barred from fully recovering what they are owed.

A recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court sheds light on when a commercial landlord is required to give consent to an assignment of lease or sublease.

The recent British Columbia Supreme Court decision in Yukon Zinc Corporation (Re), 2015 BCSC 836, provides some rare insight into the operation of provincial “miners lien” legislation in an insolvency context.

Background