Separate corporate personality is not a loophole or technicality, but is an essential principle of corporate law, the Alberta Court of Appeal recently reiterated in Condominium Corporation No. 0828219 v Carrington Holdings...more
Legislation must show a clear, explicit and unequivocal intention to abrogate privilege before a party is required to disclose privileged information, the Ontario Court of Appeal reiterated in its recent decision of Ontario...more
A contractual indemnification can require the losing party in a lawsuit to pay the winning party's full legal costs, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench recently confirmed in Ruel v Rebonne, 2022 ABQB 486 [Ruel]. While courts...more
Contractual terms that prevent a party from participating in a class action may be unenforceable for unconscionability and public policy when they preclude access to justice, the British Columbia Court of Appeal recently held...more
Good faith requires a party who has a discretionary power under a contract to exercise that discretion in accordance with the purposes for which it was conferred, the Supreme Court of Canada recently held in Wastech Services...more
Good faith requires a party to a contract whose actions or words have created a false impression in the mind of a counterparty to take positive steps to correct it, the Supreme Court of Canada recently held in C.M. Callow...more
A litigation document management database does not have to be disclosed to the other side in a lawsuit, even where that leads to substantial expense and time consequences for a counterparty, the Federal Court of Appeal...more
The common law anti-deprivation rule is alive and well in Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada held in an 8-1 decision in Chandos Construction Ltd. v Deloitte Restructuring Inc., 2020 SCC 25 [Chandos]. Under the rule, parties...more
The Alberta Court of Appeal, in a 4-1 decision, has ruled that the federal carbon pricing regime contemplated by the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, SC 2018, c12 s186 (the "Act") is unconstitutional, becoming the first...more
Litigation privilege may continue to protect documents created for one lawsuit from being disclosed in a second, related lawsuit, the Alberta Court of Appeal recently reminded us in Pederson v Allstate Insurance Company of...more
Pre-contract negotiations, such as prior drafts of agreements, are generally inadmissible as part of "surrounding circumstances" when interpreting a contract, and parties' subjective intentions are always inadmissible, the...more
Signaling an increased willingness to overturn decisions of administrative tribunals, the Supreme Court of Canada has reformed the law governing judicial review in Vavilov, a case about the children of Russian spies, and in...more
Solicitor-client privilege extends not only to legal advice provided directly to a client, but to the whole "continuum of communications" in which the advice is given, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench recently confirmed in...more
A breach of contract that deprives the innocent party of "substantially the whole benefit of the contract" gives the innocent party the option to terminate the contract and discharge the parties from future obligations, the...more
In the latest chapter in the seismic-related litigation brought by Geophysical Services Incorporated (GSI), the Supreme Court of Canada has denied GSI's application for leave to appeal from a judgment of the Alberta Court of...more
The documents and records of an internal investigation into a workplace accident may be privileged notwithstanding a statutory obligation to carry out an investigation and prepare a report, the Alberta Court of Appeal...more
Solicitor-client privilege applies broadly to the continuum of communications concerning matters within the solicitor-client relationship, the BC Court of Appeal recently held in British Columbia (Attorney General) v. Lee,...more
40 to 60 years may be too old when determining whether to extend a limitation period for a negligence-based environmental contamination claim, the court recently ruled in Brookfield Residential (Alberta) LP (Carma Developers...more
In two related decisions, the Ontario Court has said, resoundingly, that it will respect the corporate veil, even for complicated corporate groups with numerous subsidiaries. Both decisions involve the enforcement of foreign...more
The organizing principle of good faith and the duty of honest contractual performance laid down by the Supreme Court of Canada in Bhasin v Hrynew, 2014 SCC 71 [Bhasin] do not give courts the ability to review the fairness of...more
A corporation's failure to follow legal formalities under the Canada Business Corporations Act, RSC 1985 c C-44 [CBCA] does not, by itself, establish oppression, the Supreme Court recently held in Mennillo v Intramodal inc.,...more
Supreme Court of Canada Upholds Reasonableness as Standard of Review -
The standard of review of a composite assessment review board’s decision to increase a property tax assessment is reasonableness, the Supreme Court...more
Communications between lawyers and their clients’ accountants or other non-legal professionals are not in themselves privileged but can be where the communication is in “furtherance of a function essential to the...more
Supreme Court of Canada Revives Correctness Test for Interpreting Standard Form Contracts -
There is a new exception to the new Canadian approach for reviewing the interpretation of contracts: a trial court’s...more
A properly-worded whole agreement clause is effective to exclude liability for innocent and negligent misrepresentations, the Alberta Court of Appeal recently held in Houle v Knelsen Sand and Gravel Ltd, 2016 ABCA 247...more