Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

Developers frequently want to impose ongoing restrictions on purchasers.  Purchasers want their properties free of restrictions.  This tension has led to significant uncertainty (since the B.C. Court of Appeal’s decision in 585582 B.C. Ltd. v Anderson^[1]) about the enforceability of restrictive covenants requiring future commercial agreements.

This decision ...

In a recent decision (V.I.T. Estates Ltd. v. New Westminster (City), 2023 BCCA 183), the BC Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge to a zoning bylaw requiring that certain privately-owned strata units in the City of New Westminster be used as rental properties. The Court’s conclusion turned primarily on its finding that the Residential Tenancy Act (“RTA”) does not ...

In a warning for commercial landlords and tenants (Amacon Alaska Development Partnership v. ARC Digital Canada Corp., 2023 BCCA 34), the BC Court of Appeal has upheld the application of the duty of good faith in the context of an early termination negotiation.

The Court of Appeal came down hard on a party who used an overly technical interpretation of their strict legal rights ...

A limitation period is a specific period of time within which a person with a legal claim must commence a court proceeding to assert that claim. In British Columbia, the Limitation Act, SBC 2012, c 13 (the “Limitation Act”) provides for a basic limitation period of two years from the date a claim is discovered. Failure to start a claim within the applicable limitation ...

BC Court of Appeal Settles the Law on Lien Rights for Construction Projects that Span Multiple Parcels of Land

The B.C. Court of Appeal (the “BCCA”) recently issued reasons for judgment in the highly anticipated case of JVD Installations Inc. v Skookum Creek Power Partnership (“Skookum”). The court, for the first time, declared that a “single integrated ...

In late September 2021, a judge of the British Columbia Supreme Court in chambers refused the application of Teal Cedar Products Ltd. (“Teal”) to extend the interlocutory injunction to protect its ongoing logging operations in the Fairy Creek watershed on Vancouver Island from unlawful interference by protesters.^[1] Media coverage about the protests over old ...

Earlier this year, we wrote about how questions about the applicable standard of review of arbitral awards had been re-opened by two decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”), Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov^[1] (“Vavilov”) and Wastech Services Ltd. v. Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District^[2] (“Wastech”).

On ...

In Kent v. Panorama Mountain Village Inc., 2021 BCCA 332, the BC Court of Appeal overturned a lower court decision and found that a restrictive covenant requiring owners of a strata unit to rent to the public only through a centralized rental management system was in fact enforceable.

The petitioners own a strata unit in a complex at the Panorama Resort. A restrictive covenant ...

More often than not, sequels can’t live up to the original.  Case in point: Jaws 2.  But this blog post sequel aims to be better, like The Dark Knight.

In Part I of this blog post, we looked at the basic facts of Weaver v. Ball. The case involved two well-known scholars, Dr. Andrew Weaver and Dr. Timothy Ball, who have diametrically opposing viewpoints regarding climate change. In ...

After the initial phase of suspension of non-urgent hearings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, courts in British Columbia have started to move towards alternative ways to resume the operation of the justice system. With the increasing prevalence of remote communication options, courts have developed procedures to conduct hearings remotely using video or ...