In preparing to write about Shafron v. KRG Insurance Brokers (Western) Inc., 2009 SCC 6, I prepared myself for a complicated analysis of restrictive covenants in employment contracts. The facts of this case were so detailed, they must have indicated a correspondingly complex legal analysis. I was pleased to discover, however, that the 10-year factual [...]

On Friday November 21, 2008 the SCC released its 4-3 judgment awarding the appellants $30 million in Canadian National Railway Co. v. Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Co. of Canada, 2008 SCC 66. This case involved a 14-year dispute between Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR) and its group of property insurers including Royal and Sun [...]

For financial management company Merrill Lynch, it seems the bad news just keeps on coming. It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks for Merrill Lynch. Already battered and reeling from a series of large writedowns stemming from the subprime crisis, the current credit crunch proved too much for the company to bear as the Wall [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada recently granted leave to appeal in Tercon Contractors Ltd. v. British Columbia (Ministry of Transportation and Highways). The British Columbia Court of Appeal’s controversial decision (2007 BCCA 592) raises a fundamental question: If the courts take a “hands-off” approach to tendering infractions, who will protect the integrity of the bidding [...]

On September 2, 2008, various holders of Asset Back Commercial Paper notes, sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in Re Metcalfe & Mansfield Alternative Investments II Corp. following the Ontario Court of Appeal’s approval of a Plan of Compromise and Agreement, which takes away the ABCP holders’ rights to sue third [...]

The Deal Gets Approval On June 20th, 2008 the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) over-turned the Quebec Court of Appeal (QCA) and held that the plan of arrangement taking BCE Inc. (BCE) private did not improperly neglect a subsidiary’s (Bell Canada) bondholders’ interests. The heavily leveraged ($30B) buy-out of shareholders claims ($51.7B) will proceed next [...]

In its much anticipated May 2008 decision in Design Services v. Canada, 2008 SCC 22 the Supreme Court of Canada shut the lid on a Pandora’s Box of potential future litigation when it denied the right of subcontractors to leapfrog general contractors and directly sue purchasing institutions over irregularities in the tendering process. The outcome [...]

This post was originally published on the Blog maintained by the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta. It is reproduced here with permission. Last week’s decision in Design Services Ltd. v. Canada , 2008 SCC 22 marks something of a coming-of-age for the Supreme Court of Canada in its handling of claims for [...]

Remember the famous scene from the movie “Jerry McGuire” where sports agent Jerry has just been fired by his agency and is in his office frantically trying to contact all of his clients in a futile attempt to retain their business? Unfortunately for Jerry, his rival agent, Bob Sugar, has already prepared for this and [...]

Unions — stalwart defenders of workers’ rights that they are — seldom find themselves defendants in wrongful dismissal matters, much less defendants in front of the Supreme Court of Canada. Nevertheless, the Yukon-based Local 31 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will have that dubious distinction when Canada’s highest court hears Evans v. Teamsters Local [...]