Provisions in the Act which prohibit specific types of ipso facto clauses, such as this one, which invalidates clauses that grant an accelerated payment or forfeiture of term because of someone’s filing of a Notice of Intention, do not oust the general common law “anti-dep...

The Court of Appeal quashed a decision of the Tribunal that denied legal representation on the basis that legal counsel could instead provide assistance anonymously and behind the scenes.

The constitutionality of the Civil Resolution Tribunal's limitation on legal representat...

The policy considerations underlying section 60 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, together with the nature of constructive trusts was the subject of some debate in a series of articles published in The Advocate in 2022.

 

A healthy and respectful canvassing of p...

 

In Cohen 2023 BCSECCOM 317 an application was made to the BC Securities Commission for orders than notice delivered under an advance notice policy requiring notice with respect to the election of directors be included in a circular and that the shareholder vote be rest...

The purpose of this provision, embodying as it does the common law “indoor management rule”, is clear: persons doing business with a corporation should not have to be concerned about whether the company’s internal business housekeeping is in order. Instead, i...

Crisci v. Vancouver Island Health Authority, 2023 BCSC 1883: Section 51 encompasses not only the initial investigatory stage, but also the implementation stage of the complaint process. 

Section 35 is a "comprehensive code for the modification or cancellation of the interests in land identified in subsection (1)"(para. 40). It ousts the common law.

In Singh v Singh, 2020 BCCA 21, the Court of Appeal restricts the nature of the "other factors" that may be argued in favour of reapoprtionment. Justice Garson reviews the specific factors identified in section 95(2) and, applying the principles of statutory interpretation, co...

The theory of corporate identification attributes the intention of a company’s “directing mind” to the corporation for the purposes of establishing corporate mens rea. The doctrine is engaged where the action taken by the directing mind was: within the field ...

Maddock v. British Columbia, 2022 BCSC 1605: Section 54(h) empowers the Provincial Health Officer ("PHO") to decline the request of a person affected to reconsider (s. 43), review (s. 44), or reassess (s. 45) an order or a variance order during an emergency. This provision exi...

Pinnacle Living (Capstan Village) Lands Inc. v. Fairway Recycle Group Inc., 2024 BCCA 172  (May 2, 2024)

The BC Court of Appeal overturned a Chambers judge’s decision respecting the application of s. 23, ‘Removal of claims of lien by payment of total amount r...

 

The Province's guidance [linked here: Guidance on wage or salary information on job postings - Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca)] confirms that employers do not need to include commissions or bonus pay, overtime pay, tips, or benefits on job postings. ...

The class action privacy case, Ari v. Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, 2022 BCSC 1475 involved a claim by individuals (and those who lived with them) whose personal information was improperly accessed without an apparent business purpose, by an ICBC adjuster. The adj...

In Cran v. British Columbia (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2024 BCSC 1130 (“Cran”), the Court considered a petition for judicial review of an OIPC mediated investigation decision made under s. 49, ‘Mediation may be authorized’ of the Personal I...

Section 36 of the Property Law Act does not apply to the Crown land owned or controlled by the Provincial government:    Fox v British Columbia (Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development), 2022 BCSC 541

In Cottrell v. Cottrell, 2023 BCCA 471, the respondent commenced a family law claim against the appellant. The appellant counterclaimed seeking a share of the increase in value of the respondent’s beneficial interests in two family trusts, which were controlled by the re...

In Tom v. Tang, 2023 BCCA 221, the Court of Appeal clarified that the objective standard of a reasonable will-maker applies to the will-maker's reasons for the provisions made for adult children. Previous decisions should not be interpreted as applying a subjective standard wh...

 

In Mithaq Canada Inc. 2024 ONCMT 9 the Ontario Capital Markets Tribunal (Tribunal) dismissed the application of Mithaq Capital SPC (Mithaq) to cease trade a private placement that Aimia Inc. (Aimia) completed in October 2023. Mithaq had asserted that the private placem...

The Mental Health Act has no purpose or principles guiding statutory interpretation and application. In A.T. v. British Columbia (Mental Health Review Board), 2023 BCCA 283 at paras. 68-73 the Court summarized different purposes that can be found through jurisprudenc...

This section was drawn from section 2.1 of the Arbitration Act, RSBC 1996, c. 55, and is needlessly confusing. On the one hand it seems to say that people can agree to arbitration anything that "may be the subject of a family law dispute in the future," while on the other is s...

Decisions of the court under s. 17 are not limited appeal orders and therefore leave is not required under s. 11 of the Court of Appeal Rules to appeal.

The case Darwin Construction (BC) Ltd. v. PC Urban Glenaire Holdings Ltd., 2023 BCCA 436 (“Darwin”) involved construction of a multi-phase residential townhouse development project based in North Vancouver, a contract dispute over payment to the general contractor ...

In applying this section, the Court may consider the following: "First, what were the testator's intentions with regard to the issue for which rectification is sought? Second, does the Will as written fail to carry out those intentions? Third, is that failure a consequence of ...

This provision is mandatory and there is no discretion to order payment to be made to someone other than the PGT. See 2019 BCCA 171 at paras 7 - 11.

In July 2022 the Ombudsperson’s Office released “Systemic Investigation Update: Report on the Implementation of Recommendations from Committed to Change: Protecting the Rights of Involuntary Patients under the Mental Health Act”, which considers whether ...

This amendment removes "an architect, as defined in the Architects Act" in 31(a) but adds "an architect under the Professional Governance Act" in 31(f.1).  This is a consequential amendment after the Architects Act was repealed on February 10, 2023 and architects are now ...

The implications of this section are canvassed by Jennifer Bednard in "Will or Will Not: Practice Implications of Section 58 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act Part I: What is a Testamentary Document Anyway?" (2020) 78 Advocate 527.

Athwal v. Johnson, 2023 BCCA 460 was an appeal of an order from a petition for judicial review arising from a dispute between the appellant landlords and respondent tenants regarding the landlord’s Notice to End Tenancy (the “Notice”) under s. 49(3) of the Re...