Posted on: June 23, 2022
The Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision Rahman v. Cannon Design Architecture Inc., 2022 ONCA 451 (“Rahman”) re-affirms the general rule that a contract, including an employment contract, must be interpreted objectively without considering the parties’ subjective understanding of its terms. Rahman involved an employee’s wrongful dismissal claim against her former employer. The employee was terminated […]
Posted on: March 15, 2022
When a person receives money or property without giving something in return, the law presumes he or she has an obligation to return it to the person from whom he or she received it. This presumption, known as the presumption of “resulting trust”, may be rebutted by showing that the money or property was intended […]
Posted on: January 13, 2022
Spurred by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Ontario courts have rapidly introduced new technologies to enable court hearings to proceed virtually. One important development is the introduction of the evidence-management software Caselines. Caselines allows parties to share with judges and associate judges documentary evidence and submissions on motions, trials and other […]
Posted on: February 26, 2020
In Emeny v. Tomaszewski, 2019 ONSC 3298, Justice Sossin considered what level of damages were warranted where an individual was subjected to serious defamation on social media. In previous decisions, the Courts have awarded a high-level of damages where defamatory comments related to the reputations of white-collar professionals such as lawyers, accountants, and doctors. In Emeny, our […]
Posted on: October 22, 2019
What happens when employers terminate employees and try to rely on unclear written employment contracts? That was the question in Andros v Colliers where our employee client was terminated on the basis of a written employment contract with a questionable termination clause that attempted to severely limit his severance package. The firm won at the […]
Posted on: October 7, 2019
The legal maxim of caveat emptor, roughly translated as “buyer beware”, is a well-entrenched principle of Ontario real property law. According to this general principle, a buyer of land assumes the cost of any defects in the land she buys and cannot sue the seller for damages relating to most defects in land. Although Caveat […]
Posted on: April 29, 2019
Online defamation is an unfortunate reality for many businesses and individuals. Negative online reviews can deter customers away from a business; undermine employee morale; and divert resources to respond to defamatory commentary. Similarly, for individuals, online defamation has the potential to cause hurt feelings, embarrassment and lasting damage to one’s professional reputation. A person defamed […]
Posted on: January 18, 2019
Court delays made headlines again recently, after Justice Peter Daley addressed the “facilities crisis” facing the Ontario Superior Court in Brampton, where it can take up to eight months to hear a civil or family matter and even longer for a criminal matter. Justice Daley focused his remarks on the provincial government, which he said […]
Posted on: December 20, 2018
Trial courts continue to iron out the practicalities of the “culture shift” called for by the Supreme Court of Canada in Hryniak v Mauldin, 2014 SCC 7 to apply summary resolution procedures that are shorter and less expensive than trialswhen doing so is fair and just. One of those options is to proceed by way […]
Posted on: December 10, 2018
As the new recreational cannabis laws have rolled out over the past month, there’s been a lot of discussion over how difficult it is to determine whether someone is impaired by the drug. This is because it is not clear how much marijuana in one’s system results in impairment, or how long that impairment lasts, […]
