A u-turn on priority disputes between secured creditors and lienholders!
National Bank of Canada v. KNC Holdings Ltd. 2017 SKCA 57 In 2016, the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench rendered a decision on the priority of builder’s liens filed against certain assets under The Builders’ Lien Act (Saskatchewan) (the “BLA”),...
Receivership or CCAA? Having already given significant time, a creditor is not forced to wait longer to enforce
Affinity Credit Union 2013 v. Vortex Drilling Ltd. 2017 SKQB 228 In late July 2017, Mr. Justice Scherman was faced, for the second time in less than two years, with competing applications for CCAA and receivership orders. For the second...
Giving Legal Effect to Emails – Can Emails Satisfy the Requirements to Extend Limitation Periods Under The Limitations Act?
E-mail conversations are often relatively informal and the participants, especially when they are not lawyers, can take prior discussions as a “given” rather than fully and expressly repeating them to ensure they have legal effect. Recently, in I.D.H. Diamonds NV...
Be Careful What You Ask For: What Can Happen When a Creditor Provides the Wrong Payout Figure
One of the routine things that lenders and other creditors do is respond to requests for payout amounts. A recent Saskatchewan decision, Halpape v Bank of Montreal, 2017 SKQB 23, provides a cautionary tale for the disaster that can ensue...
Lesson to Directors: You can be held personally liable for oppressive conduct
While Supreme Court of Canada judgments dealing with commercial law are scarce, in Wilson v. Alharayeri, Canada’s highest Court unanimously held that directors, as opposed to the corporation, itself can be held personally liable for corporate oppression. The Supreme Court...
CASL Reprieve – Private Right of Action No Longer Imminent
By an Order in Council released June 7, 2017, the federal government has suspended the private right of action under Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (or “CASL”). The provisions, which were to come into force on July 1, 2017, would have provided...
A Canadian Perspective on the Hague Securities Convention
On April 1, 2017, the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities Held with an Intermediary (the “Convention”) became effective in the United States. While Canada has not yet ratified the Convention, it is...
CASL, July 1, 2017 and Why You May Need to Purge Your Electronic Mailing List
You are likely getting a flurry of emails asking you to provide the sender CASL (Canada’s anti-spam legislation) consent. You got similar consent requests before July 1, 2014 when CASL first came into effect. Now you are getting more such...
Deliberate acts of damage by lessees and the murky world of insurance exclusions
The BC Supreme Court provides some clarity When an insurance policy exclusion does not come close to being easily intelligible, an insurer may not be entitled to rely on it to exclude coverage for acts of intentional damage by a...
Two Ontario Law Reform Changes of Note to Lenders and Lessors
On March 22, 2017 Ontario Bill 27, the Burden Reduction Act, 2017 (“BRA”) went into force and, among other things, this legislation made two changes of note to lenders and lessors. Waiver of Receipt of PPSA Registrations Your present forms...
