Canada Case Law

Mazac v. Muise

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

The court held that while the amendments did not create a new cause of action, they introduced a new head of damages (physical pain and health effects) that raises causation and mitigation issues necessitating review of extensive medical records and re-discovery; accordingly a conditional costs award approximating the Defendant's reasonable additional expenses ($20,000) was appropriate unless the Plaintiff discontinues those damage claims within the prescribed timeframe. Separately, the Plaintiff's voluminous, repetitive and often inadmissible affidavit material, inadequate preparation and re…

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• Costs awards
• Amendment of pleadings
• Discovery obligations
• Admissibility of affidavit evidence
• Use of ai in court submissions
• Causation

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Zhang v. Lin

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court ordered further document production about the sale of Surrey Development Land, finding the records relevant to tracing funds, disclosure, and possible remedy choices.

• Production of documents
• Disgorgement of profits
• Duty of disclosure
• Directing and controlling mind
• Shareholder loans and distributions
• Production-of-documents

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Goodhew v. Summers

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

A family law trial about child support and section 7 expenses, with income imputed to both parties after extensive non-disclosure and conflicting financial evidence.

• Income imputation
• Section 7 expenses
• Retroactive child support
• Fmep enforcement
• Non-disclosure sanctions
• Child-support

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Northwest Waste Solutions Inc. v. Accili

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court dismissed an application to strike over late disclosure of a settlement/cooperation agreement, holding the non-disclosure was an honest counsel mistake without irremediable prejudice.

• Mary carter agreements
• Immediate disclosure obligation
• Remedy for non-disclosure
• Prejudice requirement
• Abuse-of-process
• Civil-procedure

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Birkich v. Cantafio

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court refused to exclude a plaintiff’s expert report despite destruction of the underlying recording, finding no actual prejudice shown and leaving weight to trial.

• Admissibility of expert report
• Retention of expert underlying data
• Destruction of evidence
• Prejudice and remedies
• Trial management
• Expert-evidence

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Armoyan v. Armoyan

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

Rule 59.27 does not restrict the court's power; applying Rule 14.12 and established disclosure factors the court found the specified payment records, mortgage documentation, promissory notes and loan records held by the non-party were trial-relevant, proportional and should be produced; amalgamation corporate documents and estate material were not ordered.

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• Non-party disclosure
• Relevance and proportionality
• Privacy balancing
• Implied undertaking
• Property valuation

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Kovachis v. Kovachis

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

Appeal allowed: motion judge erred in striking pleadings because the record showed substantial disclosure, no finding or evidence of wilful non-compliance, the motion judge failed to specify what disclosure was missing, and the proportionality principle did not justify the drastic sanction; therefore the order striking pleadings was set aside and the pleadings reinstated.

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• Striking pleadings
• Failure to disclose
• Proportionality in disclosure
• Marriage contract and separation agreement
• Sanctions for non-compliance

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Saturley v. CIBC World Markets Inc.

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

At the disclosure stage the Court adopts a relatively liberal view of relevance to ensure a fair trial; therefore CIBC must produce the additional e-mails identified in the plaintiff's Outlook account and the plaintiff must produce portfolio evaluation/recommendation documents relating to clients identified by CIBC as involved in unauthorized trading and any clients on the plaintiff's witness list, while other contested production and discovery requests (further discovery of non-party Cowan, long-distance phone records, forcing an admission by Humle) are denied or limited.

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• Relevance for disclosure
• Production of documents
• Discovery undertakings
• Settlement privilege
• Impeachment material (rule 94.09)
• Witness examination and lists

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Stevanovic v. Petrovic

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court ordered partial production of ICBC adjuster notes and related documents, finding the defendant had not shown litigation privilege for all disputed materials.

• Litigation privilege
• Document production
• Adjuster files
• Insurance coverage investigations
• Cl-75 reports
• Policy reserves

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M.E.C. v. D.E.J.

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Interim family-law application partly granted: support variation was refused, but limited access to house-sale funds, disclosure, and restraints on dissipation were ordered pending trial.

• Variation of interim support
• Imputed income
• Asset dissipation and restraint
• Trust funds and third party trustees
• Accounting
• Discovery of corporate records

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