Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

Likely because the application of the law is uncertain, commercial leases generally have detailed clauses dealing with the question of when a piece of equipment or an improvement installed in a premises becomes a fixture or remains a chattel.  The answer matters as fixtures, in law, are considered to be part of the land and, at the end of a lease, ordinarily would revert to the ...

Last year I blogged about a Nanaimo commercial tenant who defeated her landlord’s claim for unpaid rent on the grounds the lease had been fundamentally breached as a result of a pervasive odour. Neither the landlord, nor the tenant could find the source of the smell though it was related to the HVAC system. The odour was adversely affecting the tenant’s retail clothing ...

It is common for someone writing a will to appoint as their executor a family member or friend.  Sometimes this is done without understanding what it means to be an executor.  Sometimes the ability and propriety of the proposed executor is not considered.  Often, the relationship between the proposed executor and the will-maker changes after the will has been written.  ...

In 2012, the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed a defamation claim over a corporate news release that provided general information about the intended response to a lawsuit.  The case was dismissed on the grounds that news releases issued by public companies to report on litigation brought against them are published on occasions of either absolute or qualified privilege.  As such ...

In 2012, the B.C. Court of Appeal decided the case of Loychuk v. Cougar Mountain Adventures Ltd. (discussed in an earlier blog post) In doing so, the Court made a clear pronouncement that people injured while taking part in inherently dangerous activities will be precluded from suing a commercial operator where they signed a release waiving claims in negligence.  Last ...

“The law of succession is among the most archaic areas of private law, and British Columbia legislation dealing with various aspects of succession is highly fragmented, spread throughout a forest of statutes.”

Wills, Estates and Succession,
A Modern Legal Framework,
B.C. Law Institute, 2006

Those words were written nearly a decade ago and described, in brief, the ...

Some time ago, I wrote a blog post about a Court of Appeal decision that upheld, and arguably extended, the enforceability of liability waivers and releases signed by customers of commercial enterprises.  That particular case involved zip-lining, an activity the court described as an inherently risky recreational adventure.  While that decision served as confirmation ...

It seemed like a good idea at the time. However, as time passes, things change and having a restrictive covenant on title to property can become a big problem. Restrictive covenants are charges registered on title to land that restrict the use and enjoyment of that land in some way.  They can prohibit activities on a property or confine the nature, size and location of ...

An executor, absent consent or a court order, must not make any distribution of estate assets to beneficiaries of a will for six months following the grant of probate. This is a statutory prohibition in section 12 of the Wills Variation Act (the “WVA”). There is a serious risk to executors who make early distribution.

This six month prohibition is intended to balance ...

In several earlier posts I discussed a B.C. Supreme Court decision involving problem strata owners who had, for years, defied efforts by the strata council to moderate their poor conduct.  The court ordered the sale of the strata unit as the only practical means to bring an end to what was described as “outrageous conduct."  The Court of Appeal allowed the owner’s first ...