Canada Case Law

O’Brien v. Grand Forks (City)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Accepted the expert appraisal value of $64,000 (and the 2021 expropriation appraisal of $62,500/advance payment $62,511.51), rejected plaintiff's unsupported $180,000 valuation and claim for replacement; awarded disturbance damages limited by s.34: six months rent at $342/month ($2,052) and proven moving expenses of $392.05, plus interest from date of expropriation; rejected claim for owner's time and litigation costs; plaintiff not awarded costs.

Source excerpt

• Compensation
• Disturbance damages
• Market value
• Advance payment
• Relocation costs

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Galloway v. North Okanagan (Regional District)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Expropriation compensation case in which the Court valued the property at $516,000, deducted the advance payment, and dismissed disturbance damages and loss of opportunity.

• Compensation
• Disturbance damages
• Loss of opportunity
• Riparian area regulation
• Highest and best use
• Expert admissibility

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Milne v. Canada

Court

Federal Court

Federal Court redetermination on expropriation compensation dismissed claims for house relocation or replacement, injurious affection, and interest, leaving the prior costs award unchanged.

• Disturbance damages
• Injurious affection
• Compensation quantum
• Costs
• Expropriation-compensation
• Disturbance-damages

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546761 B.C. Ltd. v. East Kootenay (Regional District)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court found the dam expansion significantly harmed the property’s aesthetic and functional value, rejected betterment, and awarded $340,080 in compensation.

• Injurious affection
• Betterment
• Compensation
• Expert valuation
• Comparables and qualitative appraisal
• Injurious-affection

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Spera (Lynn Creek) Holdings Ltd. v. North Vancouver (District)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court fixed compensation for a partial expropriation at $8,200,320, preferred the District’s appraiser’s methodology, and rejected the claim that Hanlon bound the valuation.

• Fair market value
• Compensation
• Partial takings
• Abuse of process
• Appraisal evidence
• Interest and costs

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Grosvenor Canada Limited v. Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court declined to extend time for service of a notice of civil claim in an expropriation compensation action, finding the delay unexplained and counsel’s oversight inexcusable.

• Extension of time
• Service of process
• Statutory interpretation
• Compensation for expropriation
• Extension-of-time
• Service-of-process

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St. John’s (City) v. Lynch

Court

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada held that Watershed zoning in St. John’s was an independent enactment and must be considered in valuing constructive expropriation compensation.

• Constructive expropriation
• Compensation
• Pointe gourde principle
• Zoning and land use regulation
• Market value assessment
• Constructive-expropriation

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Chandi v. Zhao

Court

British Columbia Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal upheld payment out of remaining expropriation funds to Zhao, but replaced an unauthorized fractional costs award with Scale A party-and-party costs.

• Payment out of court of expropriation funds
• Priority of judgment creditors to expropriation proceeds
• Assessment and scale of party-and-party costs
• Interest accounting and avoidance of double recovery
• Interpretation of supreme court civil rules re costs
• Expropriation

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Halifax County Condominium Corporation No. 277 v. Halifax Regional Water Commission

Court

Nova Scotia Court of Appeal

The Court allowed the appeal in part because trespass was sufficiently pleaded and summary judgment should not have been granted to strike the trespass claim; nuisance was not properly pleaded because the alleged interference was direct and occurred on the plaintiff’s land (thus falling within trespass, not nuisance); reasons dismissing injurious affection were adequate because that cause depended on viable trespass or nuisance and no statutory authority for the construction was pleaded; and damages claims arising from the 2017‑18 construction are statute barred while any ongoing trespass is…

Source excerpt

• Trespass
• Private nuisance
• Injurious affection
• Easement interpretation
• Summary judgment on pleadings
• Discoverability

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Walma v. Georgian Bluffs (Township)

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

The Crown's appeal was allowed because orders against the Ministry were outside the originating application and procedurally unfair; the Township's appeal was dismissed because the application judge permissibly found the access road to be a public highway based on statute labour and common law dedication and acceptance, and accordingly the judgment was amended to declare the road public and to order the Township to restore it and pay specified costs.

Source excerpt

• Forced road
• Public highway
• Statute labour
• Constructive expropriation
• Injurious affection
• Procedural fairness

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