Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

Once again the courts have confirmed that commercial tenants must pay their rent, despite arguments about the effect of COVID-19.

In a recent decision, Cherry Lane Shopping Centre Holdings Ltd v. Hudson’s Bay Company ULC, 2021 BCSC 1178, the Supreme Court of British Columbia found that the provisions of the lease requiring Hudson’s Bay to pay rent were “clear ...

As courts cautiously resume in-person hearings across the country, there is looming uncertainty about when—or if—civil jury trials will ever resume. For instance, B.C. and some regions in Ontario have announced that civil jury trials are suspended until at least 2021—and Ontario is considering whether to abolish them altogether. By contrast, Alberta is allowing ...

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 ...

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.

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Ministerial Order No. M086 (the “Prior Order”), discussed in that blog post, was repealed and replaced by Ministerial Order ...

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 ...