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 […]

In a judgment delivered on May 6, 2011, Chief Justice Joseph P. Kennedy of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court dealt with a contentious issue relating to arbitration clauses in construction contracts.  Is an arbitration clause in the main contract between the owner and the contractor incorporated into a subcontract between the contractor and subcontractor?  If […]

The principles of contract interpretation and quantum meruit are obviously quite distinct.  But in its recent decision CH2M Hill Energy Canada, Ltd. v. Consumers’ Co-operative Refineries Ltd., the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has reminded us that they also give rise to two very different and separate payment obligations.  There cannot be an obligation to make […]