Dominique Ménard

A forest products company challenged the right of a state-owned electricity distributor to invoke a price adjustment clause in a 1926 power supply contract, arguing that the distributor was not a party to that contract.

The majority held that a 1965 bilateral contract between the distributor and the original contracting party effected a temporally limited assignment of the 1926 contract, with the assigned party's advance consent validly given in the original agreement.

As a result, the distributor was entitled to pass on to the forest products company the taxes and charges levied upon it by provincial legislation as increases in the cost of electricity generated from water power.

The dissent maintained that the trial judge had committed no reviewable error in finding that the 1965 contract created a mandate rather than an assignment, and that the Court of Appeal should not have intervened by analyzing the contract on a theory never advanced at trial.

The plaintiff underwent open-heart surgery to remove a mass that was pre-operatively diagnosed as a likely myxoma (tumor) but was post-operatively confirmed to be a thrombus (blood clot).

The plaintiff brought a medical negligence action against the involved cardiologists, cardiac surgeon, and cardiac anaesthetist, alleging they breached the standard of care by failing to diagnose the mass as a clot and treat it medically, and by failing to obtain informed consent.

The Superior Court of Justice dismissed the action, finding that the physicians met the standard of care in their differential diagnosis and treatment plan, as the mass had unusual features suggestive of a tumor and required surgical removal regardless.

The court also found that causation was not established and that informed consent was properly obtained.