Summary In Chandos Construction Ltd. v. Twin Peaks Construction Ltd., a Master of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench has held that a lien for work done prior to the filing of a certificate of substantial completion and payment of the major lien fund does not attach to the minor lien fund. Background Chandos was […]

Summary In its recent decision in Monk v. Farmers’ Mutual Insurance Company (Lindsay), the Ontario Court of Appeal has held that the exclusion for faulty materials or workmanship in an owner’s property insurance contract does not exclude the insured’s right to recover the resulting damage that the faulty materials or workmanship has caused. This is […]

Summary In Livingston v. Span West Farms Ltd, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal recently held that, when a lien claimant includes a claim for contract monies owing and remaining unpaid, but fails to set the lien action down for trial within the statutory period – so that the lien portion of the action must be […]

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently considered the scope of the right of set-off under the trust fund sections of the Ontario Construction Lien Act (the Act) and under equitable set-off under a contract claim. In Architectural Millwork & Door Installations Inc. v. Provincial Store Fixtures Ltd., the Court of Appeal held that the owner […]

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has recently released an interesting decision dealing with arbitration and court proceedings arising from a construction contract. In Saskatchewan Power Corp. v. Alberici Western Constructors, Ltd., 2016 CarswellSask 186, 2016, the court held that the arbitration clause of the main contract between the owner and the contractor should be enforced […]

In Ross-Clair v. Canada (Attorney General), the Ontario Court of Appeal has recently held that a contractor’s claim for extras and changed circumstances was ineffective because it contained inadequate particulars of the claim. The Extras/Changed Circumstances clause The changed circumstances clause in the construction contract stated in part as follows: 35.4 A written claim referred […]

In Robert Nicholson Construction Co. v. Edgecon Construction Inc., 2016 CarswellOnt 8345, 2016 ONSC 3107, the Ontario Divisional Court decided two matters of importance under the trust fund sections (sections 7-13) of the Ontario Construction Lien Act. First, the court held that a subcontractor cannot assert a trust fund claim against the owner under the […]

In its decision in Sattva Capital Corp. v. Creston Moly Corp., 2014 SCC 53, [2014] 2 S.C.R. 633, the Supreme Court of Canada held that the interpretation of a contract should have regard to the facts surrounding the making of the contract. For this reason, the review by a court of an arbitrator‘s decision interpreting […]

In Urbacon Architecture inc. c. Urbacon Buildings Group Corp., the Quebec Court of Appeal has recently held that an architectural firm that was unlicensed in the Province of Quebec is not entitled to file a legal hypothec, the Quebec law equivalent of a construction or builders lien. The court so found notwithstanding the cross-Canada reciprocal […]