Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

There is a wonderful scene in the 1976 Peter Seller’s film The Pink Panther Strikes Again in which he arrives at a Swiss hotel seeking a room. After a brief colloquy with the hotelier over obtaining a “rume,” he turns from the front desk to see a long haired dachshund lying quietly in the doorway leading to his suite. He asks the innkeeper, “Does your dawg bite?” and is ...

In most cases, a plaintiff seeking an interim or interlocutory injunction is required to give an undertaking as to damages. The purpose of this practice is to ensure that the defendant will be adequately compensated in the event that the injunction is granted, but the plaintiff is ultimately unable to prove its case on its merits. The defendant may suffer damages (such as lost ...

Could Pablo Escobar sue for breach of contract? Can a Tony Soprano get an agreement enforced by court order? You might think that in a commercial lawsuit, if a party admits having intended to break the law, their case is over. However, the reality is much more nuanced.

In dismissing a recent appeal, the B.C. Court of Appeal (BCCA) confirmed that the courts have a broad discretion ...

The global pandemic of the disease caused by a novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has caused unprecedented disruption to global supply chains and consumer demand and resulted in government-mandated restrictions to almost all businesses. Many companies, small and large, are facing insolvency and forced to make rapid decisions about what steps that they should take.

Background

On June 21, 2018, Parliament’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (the Act) came into force. The Act sought to mitigate climate change by applying minimum national pricing standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to listed provinces that had not adopted sufficiently stringent pricing mechanisms.[1] Part 1 imposed a fuel charge to 22 listed ...

With the onset of the COVID-19 virus, the oil price war, and the resulting economic fallout from both events, the commercial environment has significantly changed. That change in the commercial environment has caused businesses and individuals to mitigate against risk and loss.

The commercial situation in which parties entered into contracts before the economic ...

Since we wrote our blog post of March 30, 2020, entitled “Suspension of Mandatory Limitation Periods & Other Mandatory Time Periods for Commencement of Proceedings in British Columbia,” there has been an important change to the law in B.C.

Ministerial Order No. M086 (the “Prior Order”), discussed in that blog post, was repealed and replaced by Ministerial Order ...

Many commercial contracts limit claims between parties, particularly for consequential losses, to instances of gross negligence. Many statutes circumscribe claims against government authorities to the same circumstances. The Police Act, for example, prohibits claims against the police except where the police have been “guilty of dishonesty, gross negligence or ...

Most claims that have to be pursued by way of a court proceeding are subject to a limitation period, i.e., a time period within which the court proceeding must be commenced. Failing to commence the proceeding within the limitation period results in the claim being barred.

The basic limitation period under the Limitation Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 13, is two years from the date the ...

In 1974, B.C. passed what is now the Frustrated Contract Act (FCA), to resolve uncertainty left when a contract was deemed frustrated (where performance has become impossible or radically different due to supervening events). Since then, the FCA has received little judicial consideration. It has been called “badly drafted and haphazard”. Most practitioners are ...