In A v B, [2017] EWHC 3417 (Comm), the High Court of Justice of England and Wales has recently held that an arbitrator in an arbitration commenced by a single request to arbitrate did not have jurisdiction to decide disputes under multiple arbitration agreements. What makes this decision so important and interesting is that the […]

In South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority v. BMT Fleet Technology Ltd. 2017 CarswellBC 2587, 2017 BCSC 1683, the British Columbia Supreme Court recently held that a single notice purporting to commence several arbitrations against several respondents was procedural invalid. However, the notice was not totally void and could be amended by the applicant to […]

This question seems very straightforward, but when the Arbitration Act provides several rights of appeal, depending on what the parties have or have not agreed upon, then which of those rights of appeal apply? Only the right to appeal that applies if the parties have not agreed to further rights of appeal? Or, all the […]

The Supreme Court of Canada has recently re-examined the issue of whether a statutory and contractual interpretation by an arbitral tribunal may be appealed. The court re-iterated the principle that arbitral awards are not appealable on a question of law when in reality the question is one of mixed fact and law. On this basis, […]

The Ontario Court of Appeal has recently allowed the appeal in the case of Ledore Investments Limited (Ross Steel Fabricators & Contractors) v. Ellis-Don Construction Ltd., 2017 ONCA 518. In doing so, it held that the arbitrator committed no reviewable error in deciding that the correspondence sent by Ellis-Don to its subcontractor did not amount […]

Arbitrators are mortal. They may make mistakes in issuing their awards. In what circumstances may they correct an award? The scope of the authority of an arbitral tribunal to alter its award after the issuance of the award has been examined in a recent Scottish case – NKT Cables A/S v. SP Power Systems Limited, […]

On March 22, 2017, a new International Commercial Arbitration Act, 2017 came into force in Ontario (the 2017 ICAA). The 2017 ICAA is contained in Schedule 5 to the Burden Reduction Act, 2017, SO 2017, c. 2.. The 2017 ICCA replaces the existing Ontario International Commercial Arbitration Act, RSO 1990, c I.9 (the Old ICAA). […]

In Ledore Investments Ltd. v. Ellis-Don Construction Ltd., the Ontario Superior Court has recently held that a letter from a contractor to a subcontractor stating that “we intend to recover these costs from you” was a sufficient notice to the subcontractor to satisfy the notice provision of the building contract. Accordingly, the court set aside […]

In Haas v. Gunasekaram, 2016 ONCA 744, the Ontario Court of Appeal recently held that claims in tort and fraud, and resulting claims to set aside the agreement between the parties, were within the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal under an arbitration agreement. Accordingly, the court action between the parties was stayed. This decision is […]