Legal Blog:

MBOT Event: A Lifetime of Leadership: Career Phases & Stages

We are very excited to be co-sponsoring the Mississauga Board of Trade Event A Lifetime of Leadership: Career Phases & Stages, which will be held on April 8, 2015 at the Markland Wood Golf Club

Keynote Speaker

Connie Clerici, President & CEO of Closing the Gap Healthcare

Panel

Connie Clerici, President & CEO of Closing the Gap Healthcare

Teawna Pinard, Expert on Women’s Leadership & Founder of Women Leading Legendary Lives

The Honourable Madam Justice Gertrude Speigel, Superior Court of Justice of Ontario

Mayor Bonnie Crombie, Mayor of Mississauga

Moderator

Nita Chhinzer (MBA, PhD) Department of Management, University of Guelph

Click here to Register

Fraudulent Signature as Defence

On occasion, we see a defence that goes something like this: “You have a very nice document stating that I will pay you this or I guarantee that. You have a very nice signature, under my name, attesting to my agreement to the terms of your very nice document. However, that is not my signature and I did not sign this document.” If the person truly did not sign the document, that defence is absolute. In Danos v. BMW Group Financial Services Canada, a 2014 Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision, the defendants took this defence to an entirely new level.

The Danger of Interpreting a Contract in a Vacuum

Your client tells you his story of a dispute with his business partner, gives you a 40-page agreement, refers you to three lines in, say, paragraph 42(1)(ii) of it, and asks whether the lines will be interpreted according to his interpretation of them. He has allotted 1/2 hour for your consultation and expects an answer within that time. Can you do it? Not if you heed the guidelines set out in Creston Moly Corp v. Sattva Capital Corp, 2014 SCC 53, 25 B.L.R. (5^th) 1.

Background

The case involved a dispute over the date to be used to set the price, and therefore the number, of shares to which one of the parties was entitled. The matter was arbitrated; the arbitrator interpreted the contract, made a decision, and set the price; one party wanted to appeal that decision. Under the BC Arbitration Act, the issues under appeal had to fall within specified conditions set out in that Act. Suffice to say that it is much easier to appeal if the issue in dispute revolves around a question of law rather than a question of fact.