In a Commercial List dispute arising from a light rail transit project, the applicants sought declaratory relief alleging that the respondents breached a project agreement by entering into an operator agreement with the transit operator on terms inconsistent with the project agreement.
The respondents moved to stay the application based on release and arbitration provisions in earlier Minutes of Settlement, while the applicants moved for production of an unredacted copy of the operator agreement.
Applying the stay framework from Peace River, the court held the respondents failed to show even an arguable case that the dispute was caught by the settlement arbitration clause, because the alleged actionable wrong did not arise until the operator agreement was executed after the settlement effective date.
The court also ordered production of the complete unredacted agreement, finding it central to the issues and that the respondents had adduced no evidence capable of justifying redactions for confidentiality or commercial sensitivity.
Costs of $90,000 partial indemnity were awarded to the applicants.
