There are many aspects of litigation to consider when bringing a claim, but perhaps first and foremost is where to bring the claim. It may seem obvious in most cases, but litigants are not always located in the same geographic area. Further, the issue in question might have occurred in a location where neither party […]
Category Archives: Commercial Litigation
The Importance of a Comprehensive Shareholder Agreement
The existence of a carefully thought-out shareholder’s agreement can go a long way to avoiding costly and time-consuming litigation. Shareholder agreements can set out the terms for various transactions in advance, determine how shareholders and directors are appointed, and a variety of other issues that will be faced by most shareholders over a corporation’s lifetime. […]
Waiver of Tort as a Cause of Action or the Remedy for Disgorgement?
There has been an ongoing controversy in Canada’s courts over whether the doctrine of ‘waiver of tort’ was sufficient to create a cause of action on its own. The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) had briefly considered the issue in Pro-Sys Consultants Ltd. v Microsoft Corporation, however, this decision did not end the debate, since […]
The Duties of Good Faith & Honest Performance
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) originally created a duty of “good faith in contractual performance” in its 2014 decision of Bhasin v. Hrynew. In the decision, the SCC recognized an organizing principle of good faith that parties generally must observe in order to perform their contractual duties honestly and reasonably and not capriciously or […]
Liability for COVID-19 Transmissions Limited as Part of Ontario’s Recovery
Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General has been anticipating a potential rush to litigation by parties seeking damages for injuries suffered as a result of COVID-19. In order to combat this, the Attorney General proposed a new piece of legislation, called the Supporting Ontario’s Recovery Act (the “Act”), which received royal assent on November 20th. […]
The Duty of Care and Pure Economic Loss, Pt. 2
As mentioned at the end of our last blog post, we are continuing the discussion of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision 1688782 Ontario Inc. v. Maple Leaf Foods Inc, a class action by a group of franchisees against a supplier. The case dealt with a legal concept referred to as ‘pure economic loss’, […]
The Duty of Care and Pure Economic Loss: Part 1
In a previous blog post, we outlined the issues in the case of 1688782 Ontario Inc. v. Maple Leaf Foods Inc, a class action by a group of franchisees against a supplier. The case dealt with a legal concept referred to as ‘pure economic loss’, meaning that the plaintiffs had clearly suffered a loss but […]
The High Cost of Self-Representation in Litigation
There is an old adage that says that any lawyer who represents themselves has a fool for a client, but this can also apply to non-lawyers as well. Some litigants choose to represent themselves in civil court matters, usually for one of two reasons. Either they are unable to afford the costs of a lawyer […]
Constructive Trusts: A Remedy for Wrongful Conduct
Constructive trusts are sometimes used by a court to impose a remedy for a party who was deprived of their rights to property via the wrongful or fraudulent conduct of a third party. This is an equitable remedy created through the common law to make the situation right, as though the wrongful conduct had not […]
Derivative Contracts: Speculation or Hedging?
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) recently released an important taxation decision dealing with how to characterize capital and income losses under a derivative contract. In MacDonald v. Canada, a taxpayer sought to deduct payments he had made to his bank as part of a loan arrangement. His position was that the payments were income […]