Billionaire Ruby Liu poses with her staff while holding a set of keys to a former Hudson's Bay-owned department store during a "handover ceremony" at Tsawwassen Mills shopping mall, which she owns, on June 26.

Rejecting a deal to sell 25 former Hudson’s Bay store leases to B.C. billionaire Weihong (Ruby) Liu would create an unreasonable precedent for such transactions in future bankruptcy cases, a lawyer for the insolvent retailer argued in court on Thursday.

The proposed $69.1-million deal, first announced in May, has faced fierce opposition from a number of the landlords who own malls where Ms. Liu proposes to launch a chain of new department stores that she would name after herself.

Major Canadian landlords including Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd., Oxford Properties, Ivanhoé Cambridge

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