When the Abitibi Power and Paper Company, in receivership since 1932, was ordered into liquidation in 1940, Hepburn appointed a Royal Commission to investigate the matter, in order to determine the best course of resolution. The Legislative Assembly imposed a moratorium on liquidation proceedings in 1941, which was ultimately upheld by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1943. The Commission's recommended plan was accepted by all creditors. It would emerge from receivership in 1946 after one of the longest such receiverships in Canadian history.