Angela Vivolo

During a Commercial List case management conference in a complex multi‑party securities and investment dispute, the court issued procedural directions governing ongoing litigation steps.

The court addressed the potential settlement motion involving certain defendants, confirmed the status of examinations for discovery, and ordered timelines for answering undertakings.

The judge provided structured options for handling refusals motions and warned that costs may be assessed per refusal to discourage unnecessary motions.

Additional directions were given regarding the timing of expert reports, a possible future summary judgment motion, and scheduling of the next case management conference.

The Chief Electoral Officer appealed a decision allowing the Conservative Fund Canada to amend its 2004 and 2006 election expenses returns to reflect GST rebates received under the Excise Tax Act.

The Fund argued that the Canada Elections Act required election expenses to be reported in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), meaning expenses should be reported net of GST rebates.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, holding that the plain wording of the Canada Elections Act does not require general election expenses to be reported in accordance with GAAP.

The Court found this interpretation consistent with Parliament's intent to maintain a level political playing field through equal spending limits.

The appellant, manager of an income trust, appealed a decision regarding the interpretation of the trust's declaration of trust.

The dispute centered on the method and date for calculating the 'Net Realized Proceeds per Unit' for units redeemed by the respondents.

The Court of Appeal upheld the application judge's finding that the valuation date was the correct date for determining the redemption price under both calculation methods provided in the declaration of trust.

The appeal was dismissed with costs.

The plaintiffs sought leave to appeal a motion judge's dismissal of their motion to enforce a settlement under Rule 49.09.

The motion judge had found he could not determine whether a settlement had been reached.

The Divisional Court dismissed the application for leave to appeal, finding no conflicting decisions on the application of Rule 49.09 and no good reason to doubt the correctness of the motion judge's decision, as he properly applied a Rule 20 summary judgment approach to the first step of the settlement enforcement analysis.

The moving party defendants sought leave to appeal a motions judge's refusal to strike out the plaintiff's claims for 'knowing assistance of breach of fiduciary duty' and 'assisting or facilitating breach of contract' in a proposed class action arising from investments in a hedge fund.

The Divisional Court granted leave to appeal, finding that there were conflicting decisions regarding the existence of the tort of assisting breach of contract, and good reason to doubt the correctness of the decision regarding knowing assistance of breach of fiduciary duty given the plaintiff was not a client of the defendants.

The issues were deemed to be of general importance to the investment industry.

The appellants moved under Rule 49.09 for judgment in the terms of an alleged settlement agreement.

The motion judge dismissed the motion, stating that he could not determine on the affidavit evidence whether a binding settlement had been reached, but concluded by stating the proceeding would continue as if there had been no accepted offer.

The appellants appealed to the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal quashed the appeal, holding that the motion judge's order was interlocutory because he did not make a final determination that no settlement existed, but rather found he could not decide the issue on the record before him.

As the order was interlocutory, the Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction.