Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

Unlike the United States, Canada does not have a national securities regulator. In Canada, each province regulates securities through its own securities commission. One of the means of harmonizing securities regulation across the country is a provision in the securities legislation of each province that empowers its regulator to make an order (often referred to as a ...

On November 28, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released one decision in two appeals concerning a taxpayer’s ability to correct an error in an agreement entered into for tax planning purposes.  Although Quebec (Agencie du Revenu) v. Services Environnementaux AES inc., 2013 SCC 65 (“AES”), dealt with this issue under the Quebec Civil Code, it does have broader ...

In several earlier posts I discussed a B.C. Supreme Court decision involving problem strata owners who had, for years, defied efforts by the strata council to moderate their poor conduct.  The court ordered the sale of the strata unit as the only practical means to bring an end to what was described as “outrageous conduct."  The Court of Appeal allowed the owner’s first ...

As is frequently noted in the press, B.C.’s Director of Civil Forfeiture is very aggressive in pursuing forfeiture in all sorts of cases, often without opposition.  Occasionally, however, the court steps in to curtail this enthusiasm.  One such interesting case  took place recently.

Jason Dery, a 40 year old “automotive collision repair technician”, has a terrible ...

In a highly-anticipated and extremely significant pair of decisions for businesses and consumers alike, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) ruled on Thursday (October 31, 2013) that the ultimate consumers at the end of a supply chain can effectively leap-frog the supply chain by having direct legal recourse in a class action against a manufacturer who illegally ...

You are a beneficiary of someone’s will.  You expect to receive a sizeable sum of money.  How long do you have to wait before you can expect that payment?  What can you do if the executor seems to be taking an inordinately long period of time?

Ordinarily, the more complicated the affairs of an estate, the longer the process will take.  An executor has a duty to settle the affairs of the ...

What happens if you lease a commercial retail space only to find, after several months of operation, that there is a pervasive and unpleasant smell in the place?  Customers are complaining.  Your employees are feeling ill.  Your inventory might be getting damaged.  The source of the smell cannot be found.  Is this your problem or the landlord’s?  Can you get out from under the ...

Many readers would be surprised to know that where you purchase real property with money provided from a third party there is a presumption that you are purchasing that property, or interest in that property, on behalf of the third person.  This is called the doctrine of “purchase money resulting trust”.  Until recently, there was some question as to whether this remained ...

Despite the advice of professionals to the contrary, families often fail to discuss estate matters with each other.  Parents may not even say they have a will, let alone discuss its contents or location.  This may leave the surviving family trying to figure out the affairs of their deceased parent without knowing where to start.  The most important information is probably in the ...

Frequently, sales contracts contain exclusion clauses that insulate a seller from responsibility for the condition of the goods being sold. The buyer gets a product they think is of a certain quality and, when they find out it is not, these clauses prevent any recourse against the seller. However, if the purchaser can establish that the nature of the defect was serious or that ...