Alex Rose

The applicant, Tacora Resources Inc., brought a motion seeking declarations regarding the calculation of quarterly MFC Royalties payable under the Scully Mine Lease, specifically asserting that the arm's length Net Revenue calculation method (clause (j)(i)) applies to its sales to Cargill International Trading Pte Ltd. The respondent, 1128349 BC Ltd. (MFC), contended that Tacora and Cargill were not at arm's length, requiring the non-arm's length calculation method (clause (j)(ii)), and claimed significant underpayments.

The court granted Tacora's request, finding that the Cargill Offtake Agreement was an arm's length bona fide contract of sale, and therefore, the clause (j)(i) method for calculating Net Revenues was applicable.

The court dismissed 112 Ltd.'s claims for additional royalties.

This is a motion for leave to appeal an order certifying a class action proceeding, specifically challenging the certification of oppression-based common issues.

The moving parties (Baffinland Iron Mines and three individual defendants) argued that previous decisions precluded class proceedings based on oppression claims due to the need for individual shareholder expectation assessments.

The court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal, finding no conflicting decisions and no reason to doubt the correctness of the original order.

The court held that the motions judge correctly applied appellate precedent that oppression claims do not necessarily require explicit evidence of each individual shareholder's expectations at the certification stage, provided common shareholder expectations are objectively reasonable and specifically pleaded.

The applicants sold their company to the respondents, with $1 million held in escrow to secure indemnity claims.

The agreement required the applicants to object to any claims within 30 days, time being of the essence.

The applicants' lawyer inadvertently missed the deadline by seven days due to a medical emergency and a colleague's serious injury.

The applicants brought an application for relief from forfeiture under s. 98 of the Courts of Justice Act.

The court held that relief from forfeiture was available even without a strict breach of contract, and granted the relief because the applicants acted reasonably, the breach was minor, and the $1 million forfeiture was disproportionate to the minimal prejudice suffered by the respondents.

The respondents' request for a reciprocal time extension was denied.

In a proposed securities class action arising from the takeover of a mining company through a joint bid on the Toronto Stock Exchange, multiple defendant groups moved to transfer the proceeding from London, Ontario to Toronto under Rule 13.1.02 of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

The plaintiffs opposed the transfer, asserting that the dispute had multinational elements and that no venue factor strongly favoured Toronto.

The court held that the defendants failed to establish that a transfer was desirable in the interests of justice and dismissed the transfer motions.

The plaintiffs also moved to stay a related statutory valuation proceeding involving dissenting shareholders under the Business Corporations Act.

The court granted a temporary stay, finding substantial overlap in factual and expert valuation issues and concluding that a stay would avoid duplication of proceedings and promote access to justice.