Articles 2021

Please find below our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for the week of November 9, 2020.

A note of welcome from our Section Chair, David Shaw, highlighting the group's activities and upcoming programs for this year.

The Supreme Court's recent decision in 1688782 Ontario Inc. v. Maple Leaf Foods defines a supplier's scope of duty of care for pure economic loss and speaks to the nature of the franchise relationship.

In a "New Normal" in the wake of COVID-19 and social distancing requirements, arbitration proceedings have adapted to meet a distanced, technologically plugged-in process. In this article, lawyer, arbitrator and mediator Megan Keenberg breaks down ten key points that are essential to a virtual arbitration protocol.

There were quite a few substantive decisions of the Court of Appeal released this week. Topics covered this week included another round of litigation in the Indian Residential School Settlement, vexatious litigants, the setting aside of an order granting summary judgement in the context of a shareholder’s agreement involving a right of first refusal, limitation periods, family law.

In Chandos Construction v Deloitte Restructuring, the Supreme Court clarified one aspect of bankruptcy law – the scope and application of the anti-deprivation rule – while leaving an unsettled area of contract law – the penalty doctrine – to be resolved for another day. Here, we consider the implications of the newly-clarified anti-deprivation rule as it applies to the construction industry.

Perhaps one silver lining to the COVID-19 Pandemic has been the accelerated implementation of technologically based tools by both the construction industry and the courts to overcome the hurdles arising from the need to maintain “physical distancing’.