Evlynn Lipton

Randy Oram, an unsecured creditor and shareholder, sought leave to appeal an order sanctioning a secured-creditor-led plan of arrangement under the CCAA and a related vesting order.

The plan involved selling the debtor companies' assets to a new company owned by an affiliate of a secured creditor, leaving no recovery for unsecured creditors.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the motion for leave to appeal, finding no serious and arguable grounds.

The court held that a plan exclusively benefiting secured creditors and not continuing the debtor as a going concern is not necessarily contrary to the CCAA, especially where there is no equity for unsecured creditors and no viable alternative plan.

In the context of CCAA proceedings, the responding parties requested that a motion for leave to appeal be transferred from a single judge to a panel of the Court of Appeal pursuant to s. 7(4) of the Courts of Justice Act.

The single judge dismissed the request, finding that s. 13 of the CCAA provides the moving party with the procedural option of bringing a leave motion to a single judge, and there was no reason to compel the moving party to adopt a different procedure.