Section 265 - Trustees, Receivers and Personal Representatives

The trustee in bankruptcy for a company ("Castor") which had essentially only engaged in investing in high-yield loans brought an action in its capacity of trustee for the Castor estate against the former auditors ("C&L") for $40 million in damages for breach of contract, and also began a "litigation support business" of providing assistance to most of the creditors (the "Participating Creditors"), including hiring professionals and experts, in connection with their action sounding in negligence against C&L for $800 million in damages. To the extent that, on settlement of the litigation, Richter was not able to recover its costs out of the proceeds of an award made to it on its own claim, Richter at such time would invoice the creditors for its remaining unrecovered costs, to be paid by set-off against loans they had made to it in the interim.

In rejecting a Crown argument that the litigation support business was deemed to be an activity of a separate person by s. 265(1)(f), Archambault J stated (at para. 32):

I do not know how it can be said here that the Litigation Support Business constitutes an activity to which the bankruptcy does not relate. It is clear that the services and properties related to litigation support services and properties acquired by the Estate in order to carry on the Litigation Support Business are also benefiting the Estate in the pursuit of its own legal action against C&L. … In any event…[r]egardless of whether the Estate should have filed its GST return as the Estate or as a separate person, the respondent's liability to pay the ITCs to the Estate would not change.

See summary under s. 141.01(2).