Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

In a highly-anticipated and extremely significant pair of decisions for businesses and consumers alike, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) ruled on Thursday (October 31, 2013) that the ultimate consumers at the end of a supply chain can effectively leap-frog the supply chain by having direct legal recourse in a class action against a manufacturer who illegally ...

You are a beneficiary of someone’s will.  You expect to receive a sizeable sum of money.  How long do you have to wait before you can expect that payment?  What can you do if the executor seems to be taking an inordinately long period of time?

Ordinarily, the more complicated the affairs of an estate, the longer the process will take.  An executor has a duty to settle the affairs of the ...

What happens if you lease a commercial retail space only to find, after several months of operation, that there is a pervasive and unpleasant smell in the place?  Customers are complaining.  Your employees are feeling ill.  Your inventory might be getting damaged.  The source of the smell cannot be found.  Is this your problem or the landlord’s?  Can you get out from under the ...

Many readers would be surprised to know that where you purchase real property with money provided from a third party there is a presumption that you are purchasing that property, or interest in that property, on behalf of the third person.  This is called the doctrine of “purchase money resulting trust”.  Until recently, there was some question as to whether this remained ...

Despite the advice of professionals to the contrary, families often fail to discuss estate matters with each other.  Parents may not even say they have a will, let alone discuss its contents or location.  This may leave the surviving family trying to figure out the affairs of their deceased parent without knowing where to start.  The most important information is probably in the ...

Frequently, sales contracts contain exclusion clauses that insulate a seller from responsibility for the condition of the goods being sold. The buyer gets a product they think is of a certain quality and, when they find out it is not, these clauses prevent any recourse against the seller. However, if the purchaser can establish that the nature of the defect was serious or that ...

Earlier this year, I blogged about the civil forfeiture case of B.C. (Director of Civil Forfeiture) v. Wolff.  That appellate decision set guidelines for the trial courts on what and how to consider the “interest of justice” when faced with a forfeiture claim.   It confirmed the “dominant principles” of proportionality and fairness in weighing whether to order ...

In my January 2012 and July 2012 blog posts, I discussed the ongoing saga of the Jordisons, arguably the epitome of strata owners from hell.  For a period of years, the Jordisons continually behaved in an obnoxious and outlandish manner towards their neighbors.  To try to stop them, the strata council levied fines totaling over $20,000 for their ongoing and flagrant ...

Landlords, tenants and law students all wrestle over what it means for something to be a fixture as opposed to a chattel.  It matters to landlords because, at the end of a tenancy, fixtures can become their property and enhance the land value. It matters to tenants because they risk losing valuable assets installed on the premises as part of their business.  It matters to law ...

In October 2011 I wrote about the BC Supreme Court decision in Federation of Law Societies of Canada v. Canada (Attorney General), 2011 BCSC 1270 in which the Court held that provisions of the federal Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and related Regulations were constitutionally inapplicable to lawyers.  Specifically, the Court held that ...