Articles

It has been almost two years since the Supreme Court of Canada recognized “a new common law duty that applies to all contracts as a manifestation of the general organizing principle of good faith: a duty of honest performance” in the landmark Bhasin v. Hyrnewdecision. As Bhasin enters its toddler years, how has the duty of good faith evolved?

Ann A. Hatsios writes a moving tribute to her firm mentor, Joel Kuchar of Drudi Alexiou Kuchar LLP.

David Debenham shares his view on how a particular class of self-represented litigants are damaging the legal system.

Nortown was contracted to Burl 9 and Intracorp separately to provide plumbing work on their respective housing subdivision projects, each of which contained several lots.

On April 13, 2016, the Canadian Senate passed the first reading of Bill S-224, An Act respecting payments made under construction contracts, to be known as the Canada Prompt Payment Act. On April 19, Bill S-224 was put on the Order Paper for second reading.

In Employment Professionals Canada Inc. v. Steel Design the Court once again deals with the thorny question of limitation periods where business people decide to forebear on their legal rights, this time in the context of a “prevenient arrangement”. Where labour or materials are supplied under an arrangement or understanding that supplies are provided at a going rate per hour or per item for one project, even if they are not ordered at one time, this is a “prevenient arrangement”.

The long, 32 year wait to reform Ontario’s Construction Lien Act may soon be over. The Province’s independent expert review of the Act is expected to submit its final report and recommendations at the end of April.

The Ontario Court of Appeal in the recent decision, Keenan v. Canac Kitchens Ltd 2016 ONCA 79 grappled with a frequent issue facing construction companies that often blur the line between independent contractors and employees.

Given the continued market interest in the P3 model and the complex nature of the contractual relationships in P3 projects, the Construction and Infrastructure Law Section of the OBA hosted the “Infrastructure Development Primer II: Into the Trenches” at the end of March, building on the inaugural success of last year's Construction and Infrastructure Section's "Infrastructure Development Primer".

A common point of negotiation in construction industry contracts is whether the standard of negligence should be “negligence” or “gross negligence”.