Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

On April 25, 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal issued its decision in a longstanding patent dispute in the oil patch regarding hydraulic fracturing technology: Packers Plus Energy Services Inc. and Rapid Completions LLC v. Essential Energy Services Ltd. et al, 2019 FCA 96. In support of its patent, Packers had issued a series of infringement suits against several players in ...

Almost a year ago (May 26, 2017), the Alberta Court of Appeal released its 2:1 decision in IFP Technologies (Canada) Inc. v. EnCana Midstream and Marketing (IFP Technologies), 2017 ABCA 157. The decision was of particular significance with respect to the meaning of "working interest" in the oil and gas industry, when consent to a disposition could be reasonably withheld ...

On April 19, 2017, in Humphreys v Trebilcock, 2017 ABCA 116 ("Humphreys"),  the Alberta Court of Appeal set out six "essential" questions that an adjudicator must ask in order to apply Rule 4.31, the "chronic delay" rule. Under the Alberta Rules of Court (the "Rules"), a party may apply to dismiss an action for undue delay pursuant to Rule 4.31 at any time in an action or Rule 4.33 ...

On November 25, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada (the "SCC") released two decisions that examine the protection of privileged communications before administrative bodies. The cases, which involve the Information and Privacy Commission of Alberta and Quebec's Chamber de l'assurance de dommages, consider the ability of legislation to infringe on the established ...

In an earlier blog post, we reviewed what the Supreme Court of Canada heralded as a “shift in culture” in Hryniak v. Mauldin, 2014 SCC 7 with respect to the availability of summary judgment.  While we had expected BC Courts to therefore be even more receptive to summary adjudications than they had in past, there was some initial hesitation in Alberta given the difference ...