Restitution
Division of Property in Common Law Relationships
On August 27 of this year, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leaved to appeal in Kerr v Baranow, 2009 BCCA 111, a family law case concerning the application of the equitable doctrine of resulting trust. In this case, the parties commenced their common-law relationship in 1981, when Ms. Kerr was in a financial crisis due […]
Marcotte, Breslaw and Class Action Justice
Imagine the following scenario: Bob owns a house in a town in Quebec. In 2020, Quebec passes legislation to the effect that no municipality may increase property taxes by more than 10% each year. In 2022, citing the need for higher revenues to account for an increase in police services due to rising crime, the […]
BMP Global Distribution Inc v Bank of Nova Scotia: Another Step in the Development of Unjust Enrichment?
Next month, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") will hear submissions in an appeal from BMP Global Distribution Inc v Bank of Nova Scotia (cob Scotiabank), 2007 BCCA 52. This case involves a mysterious counterfeit cheque in an amount of over $900,000 which was couriered to BMP by some unknown party. BMP, believing that the […]
The Death Knell to Loan Sharks by the Supreme Court of Japan: Excessive interest payments held to be returned to borrowers with statutory interest
On July 13, 2007, the Supreme Court of Japan held in two cases that consumer-loan companies return not only excessive payments of unlawful interest to borrowers but also to pay the statutory interest that accrued from the excessive payments, because the consumer-loan companies were found to be bad faith beneficiaries of unjust enrichment. Japanese courts […]