Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

Earlier this month, the B.C. Court of Appeal rendered its decision in West Van Holdings Ltd. v. Economical Mutual Insurance Company, 2019 BCCA 110 – a case which considered whether insurers can rely on certain exclusion clauses to deny or preclude coverage for environmental contamination and pollution claims.

The two insured entities, West Van Holdings Ltd. and West Van ...

Second marriages are common. They frequently occur when one or both individuals already have adult children. Sometimes these melded families work and everyone gets along, or at least are pleasant enough to each other. Occasionally it does not go that well.  In either case, but particularly the latter, difficult legal questions can arise that should to be addressed rather ...

On February 6, 2019, the Alberta Court of Appeal delivered its much anticipated decision in Weir-Jones Technical Services Incorporated v Purolator Courier Ltd, 2019 ABCA 49 (Weir-Jones). The decision provides clarification and guidance on two topics in which competing lines of authority had recently emerged in Alberta: (1) the correct standard of proof for summary ...

A recent decision from the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench raises the issue of whether similar fact evidence may be useful in a limitations defence.

In Capital Power PPA Management Inc. v. TransAlta Corporation, 2018 ABQB 1036, Justice Rooke summarily dismissed Capital Power’s action on limitation grounds.

Capital Power and TransAlta were parties to the (now ...

The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) recently changed the legal landscape on the media’s ability to contest production orders that implicate journalists’ sources.  

The facts in R v Vice Media Inc., 2018 SCC 53 (Vice Media) involve a savvy journalist, an unsympathetic source, and the SCC’s unanimous decision to uphold the production order. The court split 5-4 in its ...

In the recent Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta decisions of Weatherford Canada Partnership v. Addie, 2018 ABQB 571 and Remington v Crystal Creek Homes Inc, 2018 ABQB 644, the Court addressed how costs should be calculated following litigation. Although court costs are awarded at the end of court applications or trials and are almost always awarded in favour of the ...

Here’s a familiar scenario:  A service provider that has been invoicing its client for several years at some point discovers that it has been calculating its services incorrectly and has missed billing for an item. The mistake goes back a number of years. The service provider then sends a “corrective invoice” containing the previously missed charges to the client ...

In Rogers Communications Inc. v. Voltage Pictures, LLC (2018 SCC 38), a unanimous Supreme Court of Canada recently held that Rogers Communications Inc., an Internet service provider (“ISP”), was entitled to recover reasonable costs of complying with a Norwich order from Voltage Pictures LLC, the copyright owner. The Court remitted the matter to the motion court to ...

The June 20, 2018 Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta decision in Dow Chemical Canada ULC v. NOVA Chemicals Corporation, 2018 ABQB 482, caused headlines as a result of the more than $1.3 billion damages award.  The decision should also cause some reflection to operators on their duties to facility co-owners, even where the operating agreement excludes a fiduciary duty. 

Dow ...

A relatively recent decision from the BC Court of Appeal will shield defendants from potential exposure to special costs orders, even if they end up losing the litigation.  The decision creates an uneven playing field, where in certain types of litigation, successful defendants will recover special costs but successful plaintiffs will not.  Plaintiffs’ counsel will ...