As privacy and cybersecurity concerns grow in significance, digital breaches are a growing area of legal risk. A recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal made clear that traditional insurance policies may not extend coverage for cyber matters, potentially leaving businesses vulnerable. On March 15, 2021, the Court released its decision in Family and […]
Category Archives: Commercial Litigation
Unconscionability & Arbitration in the Wake of Uber v. Heller
Late last year the Supreme Court of Canada released a decision in Uber Technologies Inc. v. Heller in which one party challenged the enforceability of an arbitration clause in a standard form services agreement. In that case, the Court found the clause unconscionable and unenforceable, leading some to conclude that the case marked a new […]
Can a Buyer Back out of a Share Purchase Agreement Due to COVID?
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic disruption impacting transactions where parties seek to abandon deals on the grounds that the business climate is materially different and thereby avoid existing contractual obligations. The recent decision Fairstone Financial Holdings Inc. v. Duo Bank of Canada involves the application of material adverse effect (MAE) provisions that are common […]
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: Adjournment of Hearings
Legal proceedings take a great deal of time, effort and expense from all involved to get their matter to the adjudication stage. Having set a date for the hearing, it is assumed that this will motivate the parties to be ready on that date. The administration of justice wants to see matters move along as […]
The Temporal Aspect of Causation in a Negligence Claim
Last week, we discussed a case in which a man brought a claim against a municipality for damages suffered after he was assaulted in a municipal parking garage. Ultimately, the municipality was found not liable in the matter, which we will discuss in greater detail below. In the previous post, we addressed the impact of […]
How the Duty to Resolve or Simplify Can Affect Costs
The Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure (the “Rules“) dealing with the assessment and award of costs following litigation are designed to advance several purposes in the administration of justice. To indemnify successful litigants. That purpose is evident and leads to the second purpose; To facilitate access to justice. Rules regarding the assessment of costs are also […]
The Duty of Good Faith in Contracts, Further Defined
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) established a duty of good faith in contractual performance in its precedent-setting 2014 decision of Bhasin v. Hrynew. In this decision, the court recognized an organizing principle of good faith which contractual parties must observe in order to perform their contractual duties honestly and reasonably and not capriciously. Since […]
Objections to, and the Assumption of, Forum Conveniens or Non-Conveniens
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 […]
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 […]