Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

What do a “thumbs up” emoji and an email signature have in common? Both might have you wishing you never pressed send.

Last month, in a decision that has made international news, the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench gave a thumbs up to entering into contracts with a “thumbs up” emoji. In South West Terminal Ltd. v Achter Land, 2023 SKKB 116, the court held that ...

What options does one have when they discover that a term in a previously executed contract or written instrument was worded poorly, or incorrectly drafted? Generally, parties in this scenario may seek the remedy of rectification, which gives a court the equitable jurisdiction to rectify or correct the document so that it accords with the parties’ true agreement ...

In a decision released on June 26, 2020, Uber Technologies Inc. v. Heller 2020 SCC 16, the Supreme Court of Canada (the “SCC”) found invalid the arbitration clause in Uber’s standard form service agreement with its drivers in Canada, requiring that they arbitrate their disputes in the Netherlands. This decision paves the way for Uber’s drivers to proceed with a ...

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 ...

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 ...

The recent decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Chriscan Enterprises Ltd. v. St. Pierre, 2016 BCCA 442, reminds those who elect to resolve their business disputes through arbitration that decisions of the arbitrator, even those touching on the fairness of procedures, will generally be final and not subject to review by the courts. As the Court noted, the ...

On November 13, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada released its much anticipated decision in Bhasin v. Hrynew, 2014 SCC 71.  In its decision, the Supreme Court of Canada for the first time expressly recognized “good faith” as an organizing principle in the operation of contract law in Canadian common law provinces.  This is a significant alteration to the law of contracts in ...

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 ...

What is an illegal contract and is it enforceable?  If an illegal contract is unenforceable, does the party who received its benefit get to keep that windfall?  The short answer to the first question is that a contract is illegal when it is either contrary to a statute or is contrary to public policy.  Generally, illegal contracts are not enforceable.  The answer to the second ...

The Supreme Court of Canada released its decision today in Southcott Estates Inc. v. Toronto Catholic District School Board, 2012 SCC 51 which addressed a number of thorny issues relevant to commercial real estate disputes including whether a Plaintiff must mitigate its damages where it has made a claim for specific performance of a real estate contract.  The decision has ...