In Caetano v Quality Meat Packers, 2017 ONSC 1199, Justice Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court recently had opportunity to consider whether two representative proceedings commenced on behalf of two separate groups of employees against an insolvent employer ought to be struck because, despite the actions having been commenced within the applicable two year limitation period, the plaintiffs in those two actions had failed to obtain the necessary representation orders within the two year period.
Both of Canada’s primary insolvency statutes, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (“BIA”) and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) provide for an automatic stay of all legal proceedings when an insolvent debtor files for or seeks insolvency protection. The purpose of the stay is to provide breathing space to a debtor attempting to restructure its business so as to avoid “death by a thousand cuts” and also to ensure similarly situated creditors are treated equally.
In a decision released April 27, 2016 in LBP Holdings Ltd. v. Allied Nevada Gold Corp., Justice Belobaba dismissed a motion by a representative plaintiff to add certain underwriters as defendants to a securities class proceeding. The defendant gold mining company, Allied Nevada, effected a secondary public offering financed as a "bought deal" by two underwriters.
Hello All,
Topics covered by the Court of Appeal this week in its civil decisions included franchise law (duty of disclosure), employment law (WSIB and wrongful dismissal of dependent contractors), insolvency (statutory privilege of documents), debtor-creditor (capacity to execute guarantees), MVA (liability of automobile lessors), family law (property claims of unmarried common law spouses), contracts (interpretation and specific performance), and motions to strike for no reasonable cause of action (a claim by a lawyer against the Law Society and a securities class action).
This week’s TGIF considers In the matter of SurfStitch Group Limited [2018] NSWSC 164, where the Court refused to allow administrators to value claims of class action group members at a nominal $1 for voting at the second creditors’ meeting.
What happened?
On 11 December 2017, the administrators of SurfStitch filed an application seeking orders:
JWS successfully protected the rights of the class action creditors to have their claims in the voluntary administration of SurfStitch Group Limited (SGL) valued appropriately, for the purposes of voting at the second meeting of creditors of SGL. Joseph Scarcella of JWS acts for Nakali Pty Limited (Nakali), the lead plaintiff in the first class action proceeding instituted against SGL.
One of the harbingers of the end of the mining boom in Western Australia was the collapse of the Forge Group in early 2014. Forge Group Ltd (Forge) and the companies associated with it were substantial players in the mining services sector. Towards the end of 2013 Forge went into an extended trading halt arising from concerns about its ability to meet debt covenants. In early 2014 the company announced that it had reached a deal with its bank, ANZ, which would “solve the liquidity issues and strengthen Forge Group’s balance sheet”.
Year in Review - Australia Law in 2016
Key Points:
While shareholders may only need to establish indirect market causation, there are still significant obstacles for establishing shareholder claims.
Do plaintiffs in a shareholder class action have to show they relied upon misleading or deceptive conduct, or is it enough that the market in general relied upon them, which then affected the share price?