Canada Case Law

Rimon v. CBC Dragon Inc.

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

Given the appellants' clear, repeated and material non‑compliance with multiple disclosure undertakings and successive court orders that went to the heart of the case, the motion judge did not err in exercising his discretion to strike the defence and counterclaim without leave; the appellate court will not disturb that exercise of discretion absent an error of law or clear error of fact, and none was shown.

Source excerpt

• Striking pleadings
• Failure to disclose
• Undertakings
• Compliance with court orders
• Sanctions
• Prejudice

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Alderbridge Way Limited Partnership v. Romspen Investment Corp.

Court

British Columbia Court of Appeal

Leave to appeal from a refusal to order document production was dismissed in urgent CCAA-related litigation over a stalled development financing dispute.

• Duty of good faith in contractual performance
• Document production and relevance
• Commercial confidentiality and redactions
• Discretionary review in ccaa proceedings
• Leave to appeal criteria
• Document-production

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Liu v. The Canada Life Assurance Company

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court ordered Canada Life to serve an amended list of documents identifying prior documents no longer in its possession, but awarded no costs.

• Delivery of insurance policy
• List of documents
• Possession and control
• Document retention
• Production of documents
• Costs

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Steelhead LNG (ASLNG) Ltd. v. Arc Resources Ltd.

Court

Federal Court

The Federal Court dismissed Steelhead’s appeal from a case management order refusing joinder of Western LNG and further documentary production in a patent action.

• Patent infringement
• Joinder of parties
• Production of documents
• Standard of review (palpable and overriding error vs correctness)
• Case management orders
• Costs

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Jiang v. Peoples Trust Company

Court

British Columbia Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal dismissed applications for leave to appeal and for a stay of document disclosure orders in a prepaid cards class action.

• Document disclosure
• Leave to appeal
• Stay pending appeal
• Solicitor-client privilege
• Proportionality
• Possession and control

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Lookman v. Berris Mangan Chartered Accountants

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Interlocutory discovery ruling in a professional negligence action. The court upheld privilege over draft correspondence, ordered limited further discovery, and refused a second representative as premature.

• Document production
• Solicitor-client privilege
• Representative examinations for discovery
• Particulars
• Billing disputes
• Cross-border tax classification

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Unisys Canada Inc. v. Pineau-Pandya

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

The motion was partly granted: production was limited to documents sufficiently relevant to Unisys's pleaded claims and proportional to the issues (disgorgement and timing/ownership of Meraki). The court ordered Meraki's annual financial statements for 2017 and 2018, personal tax returns of Andrea Pineau-Pandya and Shiliang Lu for 2017 and 2018, and Meraki's shareholder register, directors' register and certificate of incorporation; all other requested undertakings were refused as excessive, insufficiently relevant to Unisys clients or beyond the reasonable temporal/scope limits, with costs r…

Source excerpt

• Production of discovery undertakings
• Preservation of documents
• Relevance in disclosure
• Non-competition and non-solicitation
• Disgorgement of profits
• Shareholder and corporate formation documents

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Unisys Canada Inc. v. Pineau-Pandya

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

The presumption of disclosure was not rebutted for the specific categories that were relevant and proportional: client contracts and gross billings/invoices for the 18 months preceding Ms. Pineau-Pandya's termination were likely to lead to relevant evidence and must be produced; a targeted email search requiring reasonable efforts for a one-year period after Meraki's incorporation was justified; other requests were denied as overbroad, irrelevant to material issues, privileged or outside the Plaintiff's control.

Source excerpt

• Production of discovery undertakings
• Relevancy
• Confidential information
• Fiduciary duty
• Non-competition/non-solicitation
• Counterclaim for defamation and unlawful interference

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Cowichan Tribes v. Canada (Attorney General)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court refused leave to cross-examine Dr. Brealey on four undisclosed documents, finding late disclosure prejudicial and unjustified, though the documents could still be used through other witnesses.

• Document disclosure
• Expert evidence
• Cross-examination
• Preclusion of evidence
• Judicial discretion
• Document-disclosure

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Eastern Platinum Limited v. Cameron

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court granted a document production application in part, ordered further Rule 7-1(1) disclosure and personal email searches, and refused broader disclosure and an affidavit of documents.

• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Discovery under rule 7-1
• Affidavit of documents
• Unjust enrichment
• Negligence
• Interference with economic interests

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