Articles 2023

Over the past several years, Canadian courts have considered claims for damages by generic drug companies kept off the market due to patents asserted by brand-name drug companies under Canada’s pharmaceutical patent regulatory scheme. The Court’s May 31st judgment in Pfizer Canada Inc. v. Teva Canada Limited, 2016 FCA 161, signals a renewed attention to rigorous application of the rules of evidence, and is expected to have wide implications on the conduct of proceedings in the Federal Court.

The Court of Appeal has released a variety of cases this week dealing with such topics as wrongful dismissal, bankruptcy and insolvency, pensions, real estate, and residential landlord and tenant. The most notable decision by far this week is the Groia v. The Law Society of Upper Canada decision in which the court dismissed the member’s appeal from his conviction for professional misconduct.

Summaries of this week’s civil decisions released by our Court of Appeal. Topics covered include real estate, family law, non-share capital corporations, labour law and leave to extend time to appeal.

The following are this week’s summaries of civil decisions released by the Court of Appeal. The topics covered include bankruptcy, the law of guarantee, the principles of contract interpretation, relief from forfeiture, civil procedure (service of foreign defendants) and family law.

Topics covered this week: Family law, bankruptcy, stay of pending appeal to the SCC, torts, and real estate. In the Israel Estate decision, Justice Laskin discusses the difference between an option to purchase and a right of first refusal. In coming to its decision, the court commented on the implied contractual obligation to exercise contractual discretion reasonably and in good faith as well as the deferential standard of review of contractual interpretation imposed by Sattva.

Topics included medmal (limitation periods and need for expert evidence on standard of care and causation), the standard of proof of misconduct in police disciplinary hearings, the onus of proof on an insurer alleging material misrepresentation, family law (variation of custody order, property claim, extension of time to appeal), an appeal from an arbitrator’s ruling on the interpretation of a contract, and amending judgments to add judgment-debtors omitted because of alleged misrepresentations.

The Court of Appeal had a busy week and released a number of civil decisions, many of which were procedural in nature - extension of time, leave to appeal, limitation periods, Rule 21. One of these procedural decisions was in the Nortel case, in which the court denied leave to appeal Justice Newbould’s trial decision, apparently bringing the matter substantially closer to a conclusion.

Should independence and impartiality be considered at the threshold admissibility stage, or only in the weight given to the evidence?