In Sociedade-de-Fomento Industrial Private Ltd. v. Pakistan Steel Mills Corp. (Private) Ltd, the British Columbia Court of Appeal recently considered the use of a Mareva injunction to enforce an award of an international commercial arbitration. The court over-turned the lower court’s decision which had denied that remedy based upon alleged material non-disclosure. In doing so, […]

Constructive trust claims are a natural for construction projects. Unpaid subcontractors and suppliers may have improved the land owned by or secured to the owner or mortgagee. But they may have a worthless claim against a bankrupt contractor and may have let the time for filing a construction lien claim pass by. In these circumstances […]

Mediation seems like apple juice:  no harm in taking it and it might do some good. But mediation has a trap: — the limitation period. If a party enters into mediation and lets the limitation period go by, then that’s real harm. In a number of reported cases, one party to a mediation did exactly […]

In construction projects, there will often be several agreements between the various participants. Those agreements may contain “entire agreement” clauses to ensure that the parties are bound only by the terms of the agreement they sign. But could the entire agreement clause have the opposite effect if it refers to one of the other agreements? […]

In Swift v. Eleven Eleven Architecture Inc., the Alberta Court of Appeal recently considered the impact and scope of a limitation of liability clause in a consultant’s contract between an owner and the architects on a building project. The court arrived at three important conclusions. First, the clause did not apply to and did not […]

One challenge facing a party to an arbitration clause is preserving a claim against the running of the limitation period. Starting the wrong claim may mean that the claim will be dismissed. That is now apparent from the recent decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal in A.G. Clark Holdings Ltd. v. HOOPP Realty Inc.. […]

A continuing issue relating to property damage insurance is whether loss which is bound to occur due to an unknown fault or defect in the structure is covered by the insurance policy. The policy may be a builders’ risk insurance policy maintained during a building project or an all-risk insurance policy maintained by a business. […]

In previous articles I have warned readers about the dangers of the limitation period in relation to arbitration claims. You can look at my prior articles dated July 17, 2011, February 26, 2012 and August 26, 2012. These dangers are highlighted by the recent decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal in Lafarge Canada Inc. […]

The decision in Ledcor Construction Ltd. v. Nortbridge Indemnity Insurance Company is another attempt by a Canadian court to deal with the ambiguity in the Builders’ risk insurance policy. The wonder is that insurers and builders do not eliminate the exclusion for faulty workmanship, or clarify what the words “making good”, faulty workmanship” and “resulting […]