Three cross-appeals arose from the interpretation of a 1985 environmental indemnity granted by the Province of Ontario to former pulp mill owners, their successors and assigns, in the context of the settlement of mercury contamination litigation brought by two First Nations.
The majority held that the indemnity did not cover first party regulatory compliance orders, as the motion judge made palpable and overriding factual errors, and the indemnity, properly read as a whole, was intended to cover only third party pollution claims.
The appeal of the Province was allowed; the appeals of the corporate successors were dismissed.
The dissent (Côté, Brown and Rowe JJ.) would have dismissed the Province's appeal and allowed the appeal of Resolute, concluding the indemnity covered the Director's remediation order, that the fettering doctrine did not render the indemnity unenforceable, and that Resolute — as Great Lakes' corporate successor — was entitled to the indemnity's protection, but Weyerhaeuser was not, as neither an assignee nor a corporate successor of Great Lakes or Reed.
