TORONTO — A potentially precedent-setting showdown between Hudson's Bay and a group of landlords opposing the retailer's push to sell about two dozen of its leases to a B.C. billionaire got underway in court Thursday.

The battle has been simmering ever since the Bay announced in May that it had selected Ruby Liu to buy 28 of its leases.

Three leases in malls she owns were already transferred to Liu, but a who's who of Canadian landlords are fighting the sale of 25 more for about $69.1 million.

The group, including Cadillac Fairview, Oxford Properties and Ivanhoé Cambridge, don't want Liu to be able to make the purchase because they say the new department store she wants to launch will fail because of her inexperience and insufficient business plan.

Bay lawyer Maria Konyukhova said in c

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