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 [...]

On May 1st, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its decision in Evans v. Teamsters Local Union No. 31, 2008 SCC 20 clarifying treatment of the issue of mitigation in employment law. With this decision, it has markedly altered the treatment of breach of employment contract in a manner that profoundly disadvantages wrongfully dismissed employees, [...]

This past Thursday marked the conclusion of Donald Evans’ five year struggle to obtain damages for his wrongful dismissal from the Teamsters Local Union No. 31, Evans’ employer of 23 years. In Evans v. Teamsters Local Union No. 31, 2008 SCC 20, a majority of the Supreme Court sided with both the Teamsters and the [...]

Crime doesn’t pay, but should criminals serving time get paid? No, according to a Supreme Court of Canada judgment, British Columbia v. Zastowny, 2008 SCC 4. Writing for a unanimous court, Rothstein J. held that “a person is not entitled to compensation for periods of unemployment due to incarceration for conduct which the criminal law [...]

The SCC released its decision in British Columbia v. Zastowny this morning. The judgment, written by Rothstein J. for a unanimous Court, deals with the issue of when, if ever, an individual may be awarded damages for past wages lost due to his or her incarceration. Rothstein J. held that to allow individuals serving time [...]

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 [...]

I remember reading about an old case in first year contracts about a man whose horse lost a shoe while he was travelling to marry a rich heiress. The blacksmith he hired to replace the horsehoe did the work poorly and made the horse lame. Consequently, the man missed his wedding and the heiress married [...]

On May 19, 2005, the SCC delivered an interesting decision in a case relating to damages and costs within the context of consumer protection issues. Prebushewski v. Dodge City Auto (1984) Ltd., [2005] 1 S.C.R. 649, examines s. 65 of the Consumer Protection Act, S.S. 1996, c. C-30.1. and decides whether an award of exemplary [...]

In my post earlier this year about Childs v. Desormeaux, a decision by the SCC which denied social host liability, I wrote that in our current legal system, access to compensation for those injured by the negligence of others is often based on the chance that the wrongdoer has insurance coverage. When the wrongdoer is [...]

An important employment law case is on its way to the SCC. Leave was recently granted in Keays v. Honda Canada Inc., a wrongful dismissal case that readers should add to their “must watch” list of cases pending before the SCC. Kevin Keays, who worked in the Quality Engineering Department at Honda Canada and was [...]