The Pan-Canadian Investors Committee for Third-Party Structured ABCP today acknowledged the decision by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to dismiss a series of motions seeking to delay the meeting of noteholders scheduled for tomorrow.

In his decision, Justice Colin Campbell rejected arguments asking that the vote be delayed until further information was made available. He noted that that this restructuring was of unprecedented size, complexity and importance to the capital markets of Canada.

“To postpone the vote … would signal the failure of the Plan. A failure of the Plan will have extremely serious consequences,” Justice Campbell noted.

He adjourned requests to require that certain noteholders be allowed to vote as a separate class. He also adjourned requests that the court excise from the plan the Ironstone Trust and the releases that would prevent subsequent lawsuits by noteholders. He requested that further information be filed with the court to inform these decisions.

Justice Campbell also noted, “The plan has been carefully and painstakingly negotiated over a number of months and I have no doubt that if the result of the fairness process were to open up the right of every noteholder to sue whomsoever they wished for any reason related to their purchase of notes, the plan will likely be withdrawn.”

The ruling means that the noteholder meeting to vote on the Plan will proceed as planned on April 25, at 10:00 ET at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.

“We are delighted by today’s decision, which allows the noteholders’ vote to proceed on schedule,” says Purdy Crawford, chairman of the investors committee. “Noteholders will now have an opportunity to have their say and to bring matters one step closer to a resolution. If they vote in favour, the final step in this process will be a sanction hearing before the court on the fairness of the plan, scheduled for early May.”

A copy of the written ruling is posted on the public website of Ernst & Young Inc., the Court-appointed monitor in the ABCP restructuring.