Introduction
Implications
Facts
Supreme Court decision
Comment

Introduction

The Court of Appeal for Ontario's (the "OCA") decision in Re Indalex Ltd.¹ was decried by professionals in pension, banking and insolvency practices. On February 1, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada (the "SCC" or the "Court") overturned the OCA's decision.

Introduction
Summary
Facts
Supreme Court decision
Comment

Introduction

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision inSun Indalex Finance, LLC v United Steelworkers, 2013 SCC 6, has a number of implications for employers, pension plan administrators, as well as both secured and unsecured creditors.

“When a business becomes insolvent, many interests are at risk.  Creditors may not be able to recover their debts, investors may lose their investments and employees may lose their jobs. If the business is the sponsor of an employee pension plan, the benefits promised by the plan are not immune from that risk. The circumstances leading to these appeals show how that risk can materialize. Pension plans and creditors find themselves in a zero-sum game with not enough money to go around.

The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) recently released its much-anticipated decision in the Indalex Limited (“Indalex”) proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (the “CCAA Proceedings”). The decision is important for secured lenders in the context of an insolvency proceeding (“DIP Lenders”) or outside of an insolvency proceeding (“secured lenders”).

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in the case of Re Indalex Ltd. [2013] SCC 6 (the “Decision”) does not, as one national newspaper put it place “creditors before pensioners”. The Decision which overturned the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in Re Indalex Ltd. [2011] O.J. No.

On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision in the landmark pension/insolvency case, Sun Indalex, LLC v. United Steelworkers. 

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in (Re) Indalex has changed the landscape for both lenders and borrowers in Canada who sponsor registered defined benefit pension plans. For lenders, carefully drafted loan documentation and effective planning can enhance the protection of a secured lender’s position in the face of the broadened scope of a deemed trust applicable to a borrower’s defined benefit pension obligations.

On February 1, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Sun Indalex Finance, LLC v. United Steelworkers^[1]. The ruling: