Insolvency and Collections
Commercial Tenancies, Letters of Credit and Bankruptcy
One method used by commercial landlords to secure against losses from commercial tenancies is to require tenants to post letters of credit (“LCs”), that the landlord can draw upon in defined circumstances. Though certainly useful, in Ontario there has been...
Read MoreProvincial Trusts in a Bankruptcy
In The Guarantee Company of North America v. Royal Bank of Canada, 2019 ONCA 9 the Court of Appeal held that the statutory trust created by s.8 of the Construction Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.30 (the CA) is a trust...
Are Licensed Insolvency Trustees Liable for Complying with Environmental Cleanup Orders?
The recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Orphan Well Association v. Grant Thornton Ltd., 2019 SCC 5 clarified the extent of a licensed insolvency trustee's obligation when it comes to environmental cleanup obligations at least in the...
Government Student Loans and Bankruptcy in Canada
As bankruptcy practitioners are aware, there was a time when the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (the "BIA") did not afford the special status to government student loans as it does now. During that time, however, the case law developed to...
Personal Guarantees
As a general rule, when a person signs a contract, he or she accepts the terms of the contract and agrees to be bound by them. The words used in the contract typically demonstrate the obligations that the person takes...
Blog Update – Bankruptcy: Federal vs. Provincial Jurisdiction and Obtaining A Fresh Start
On April 25, 2014, I wrote a blog on the interaction of: provincial legislation which allows a provincial government to continue the suspension of a bankrupt's driver's license as a result of an outstanding judgment against him or her arising...
CRA Must Seek Leave to Issue a Notice of Assessment Post Bankruptcy
Last year the writer wrote a blog regarding tax debtors who file an assignment in bankruptcy rather than appealing a large assessment that the tax debtor received from the Canada Revenue Agency (the "CRA"). As a corollary to that blog,...
Anti-Money Laundering Legislation
In Canada (Attorney General) v. Federation of Law Societies of Canada, 2015 SCC 7, the Federation of Law Societies ("The Federation") brought a constitutional challenge to several provisions of the Federal government's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist legislation, the Proceeds of...
Read MoreGuarantors must exercise care when paying out a guaranteed debt where there is a co-guarantor
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently considered the situation of a guarantor (otherwise known as a surety) paying out a guaranteed debt where there were a co-guarantor and the right of the guarantor to then claim contribution from the co-guarantor. ...
Banks do not owe a duty of care to their customers
A recent Ontario case confirms that, absent special circumstances, banks do not owe a duty of care to their customers. In Royal Bank of Canada v. Dhupar, 2014 CarswellOnt 7281 (S.C.J.), the corporate defendants purchased franchises which were financed by...
