On Friday November 21, 2008 the Supreme Court of Canada ("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] 3 SCR 453. This case involved a 14-year dispute between Canadian National Railway Co. ("CNR") and its group of property […]
Today, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") will render its judgment in the application for leave to appeal from Tomasson v Canada (Attorney General), 2007 FCA 265. At issue is whether the provisions of the Employment Insurance Act, SC 1996, c 23, which grant certain maternity benefits only to biological mothers, discriminate against adoptive mothers within […]
During his yearly deer-hunting party, Fred Wolfe was driving to a hunting stand when he spotted what he believed to be a deer. He emerged from his truck, and with the aid of his car’s headlights, shot at the object in question. It was, in fact, the respondent Harold George Herbison, who suffered significant injuries […]
In 2005, the SCC released Royal Bank of Canada v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, an appeal from the Court of Appeal for Ontario which addresses the issue of whether an insurer, on the basis of a statutory condition, is able to deny a claim and void coverage granted to a mortgagee for damage […]
In last year's Fidler v. Sun Life Insurance Co. of Canada, the Supreme Court outlined the current state of compensation for mental distress under contract law, and also explained the appropriate circumstances in which punitive damages may be awarded. While the SCC overturned the B.C. Court of Appeal’s award of punitive damages - an argument […]
It is trite to say that the banking industry and the insurance industry have been staples of the Canadian economy for over a century. One would assume that by now Canadian law would be clear on where the regulation of these industries falls in the constitutional division of powers. Banking, after all, has been expressly […]
Now that spring has arrived and the academic year has grinded to a halt, it might be a good time to reflect back on some recent Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") cases that remain as of yet undecided. One intriguing case is Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company v. Harold George Herbison, et. al., 2005 CanLII 19665 […]
The Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") decision in Chaoulli v Quebec (Attorney General), [2005] 1 SCR 791 [Chaoulli], was seen by many commentators as a significant blow to the future of public health care in Canada. Some of these criticisms were canvassed by Dean Monahan in his post in defence of the majority judgment. These fears were […]
As every personal injury lawyer working on contingency knows, the key to finding a good case is identifying a solvent party that can be affixed with liability. Lawyers will not take on a case even where the defendant's negligence clearly caused injuries to the client if that defendant does not have insurance coverage or funds […]
With all the commentary The Court has been compiling on the SCC's work, I thought it might be interesting to spend some time speculating on one of the upcoming decisions yet to be handed down. In Canadian Western Bank v Alberta, 2007 SCC 22 [Canadian Western Bank], we have an interesting clash. Here we have the appellant […]