Articles 2023

On June 7, 2017, the OBA Construction & Infrastructure Section held its annual tour and award dinner.

In Yuanda Canada Enterprises Ltd. v. Pier 27 Toronto Inc., Master Wiebe broke new ground and denied Defendants security for costs in part because of the Plaintiff’s holdback entitlement which exceeded the Defendant’s costs for the action.

On March 28, 2017, Minister of Government and Consumer Services Tracy MacCharles announced that the Ontario government intends to proceed with many of the 37 recommendations contained in the 2016 independent review conducted by the Honourable J. Douglas Cunningham, QC.

In July of 2016, the Ontario Court of Appeal, in Southwestern Sales Corp. v. Spurr Bros. Ltd., 2016 ONCA 590, delivered judgment in a case of dismissal of six construction lien actions and one trust action for delay.

In most cases where a lawyer is negligent, the plaintiff has the choice to bring a claim against the lawyer in tort, for professional negligence, or in contract, for breach of the retainer agreement.

As Toronto Lifemagazine does a feature article on how Toronto’s new Super Jail is “the Billion Dollar Hellhole”, I cannot help but reflect on what an incredible value the Construction and Infrastructure’s annual year-end tours are.

Priority disputes can get messy, especially where there are more than one borrower and mortgagee involved; over a dozen lien claimants asserting their priorities; and multiple advances to different parties in different amounts made at different times under different mortgages and credit facilities.

In instances where a party hires a contractor to conduct work on multiple, unrelated projects, the contractor may be owed an undisputed amount on one project, yet the payer may wish to retain this undisputed amount until such time as disputed amounts on a second, unrelated project are addressed.