Diana Blesko

The plaintiffs sought summary judgment for liquidated damages on four short-term lending agreements.

The defendants conceded liability for two corporate entities (Atlas LP and Atlas Ltd.).

The remaining issues were whether Peter Grigoras was liable as a guarantor for a loan to Bo Xiang and a promissory note to Rui Xu.

The court granted summary judgment against the corporate entities and found Mr. Grigoras liable as guarantor for the Xiang loan, ruling that an emailed demand for payment was sufficient despite a clause mentioning registered mail.

However, the court dismissed the claim against Mr. Grigoras for the Xu promissory note, finding that the note's mere definition of him as "Guarantor" was insufficient to establish a binding guarantee without essential terms and conditions.

The appellants appealed a trial judgment finding them unjustly enriched by the transfer of two valuable licenses without payment.

The appellants argued that where contract negotiations have failed, courts cannot use unjust enrichment to impose a contract on the parties.

The Court of Appeal rejected this submission, distinguishing the case from Skibinski v. Community Living British Columbia.

The trial judge had found as a fact that the appellants had no reasonable expectation of receiving the licenses for nothing.

The appellants also challenged the damages award, but the Court of Appeal found the trial judge's assessment entitled to deference.

The appeal was dismissed with costs awarded to the respondents.