On 9 February 2009, the Act of 31 January 2009 on the continuity of companies (Loi relative à la continuité des entreprises/Wet betreffende de continuïteit van de ondernemingen, the "Act") was published in the Belgian State Gazette.
The Act – which actually consists of two separate acts for technical reasons - will replace the unsuccessful Act of 17 July 1997 on composition with creditors.
Daycare company Estro was declared bankrupt in July 2014, but the undertaking was relaunched immediately, as the relaunch was prepared in a ‘pre-pack’ insolvency. All 3600 employees of the bankrupt company were dismissed by the administrator. About 2600 employees were immediately employed again by the relaunched company, which company was a so called ‘connected party’ as the shareholder also held a substantial part of the shares of Estro.
Ministerial Decisions
Ministry of Manpower
Decision No. 611/2012
Dissolves the trade union of the employees of Sojex Oman due to its failure to appoint sufficient members for the General Assembly.
Promulgated on 10 November 2012 Effective on promulgation
Ministry of Manpower
Decision No. 612/2012
Dissolves the trade union of the employees of Gulf Air due to its liquidation.
Sultani Decrees
Sultani Decree No. 19/2012
Appoints HE Liyutha bint Sultan bin Ahmed Al Mughairi – the Omani delegate at the United Nations in New York – as non-residential ambassador to the Republic of Cuba and the Republic of Venezuela.
Promulgated on 31 March 2012.
Effective on promulgation.
Sultani Decree No. 20/2012
Promotes Salim bin Said bin Salim Al Rahbi to the position of Supreme Court judge.
Promulgated on 31 March 2012.
Effective on promulgation.
Sultani Decrees
Sultani Decree No. 37/2012
Appoints the new Board of Governors of the Central Bank of Oman, naming Dr Ali bin Mohammed bin Moosa as Deputy Chairman.
Promulgated on 18 June 2012. Effective from 11 June 2012.
Sultani Decree No. 38/2012
Grants Omani citizenship to the named individuals.
Promulgated on 18 June 2012. Effective on promulgation.
It has become a common phenomenon that applications are brought to put into business rescue, companies which are already in liquidation – sometimes long after the liquidation commenced.
This raises some interesting questions about whether employees and trade unions remain affected persons for the purposes of such a business rescue application, given that in terms of section 38 of the Insolvency Act (24 of 1936), all employment contracts are deemed to be cancelled within 45 days after the appointment of a final liquidator.
Section 131(6)
The law in Canada concerning priorities between the statutory deemed trusts relating to pension plan contributions and certain pension fund shortfalls on the one hand, and court ordered charges in favour of DIP lenders on the other hand has been in a state of flux ever since the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal (the “OCA”) in Re Indalex.
The Supreme Court has announced it will hear the appeal in the high profile Indalex Ltd., Re. The appeal is of great interest to the commercial litigation, insolvency and pension bar. Its outcome will be closely watched and may have dramatic impact on Canadian corporate reorganizations.
Background
Century Services Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), [2010] S.C.C.A. No. 259, on appeal from (2009) 319 D.L.R. (4th) 735 (BCCA)
The union on behalf of the unionized employees of Ted Leroy Trucking Ltd., the bankrupt employer, had applied to the B.C.S.C. for directions and obtained a decision of that Court that the “wages” protected under the WEPPA “superpriority” for unpaid employees included amounts paid by the employer to third parties on behalf of the employees.
Typically under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) when a debtor brings an application to extend the stay period, the court will grant the extension, so long as the applicant debtor is acting in good faith and with due diligence. In the vast majority of such extension applications the debtor has the support of the court appointed Monitor. The recent Ontario Superior Court of Justice case Re Dura Automotive Systems (Canada) Ltd.