Marc Crandall

The applicant, a plaintiff in a proposed class action in British Columbia, sought a declaration that a sealing order issued in a related Ontario proceeding did not apply to an affidavit he had obtained from the public court record before the sealing order was formalized.

The respondents had inadvertently included confidential information in a publicly filed motion record.

The court dismissed the application, holding that the sealing order applied to the inadvertently disclosed information and that confidentiality could be restored since the applicant had not yet used or relied upon the information.

The appellant software company appealed the dismissal of its claim that the respondent breached a distribution agreement by copying the features and functionality of its software to create a derivative work.

The Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge's factual findings that no copying occurred and that the respondent's use of a marketing presentation was authorized.

The Court also found no error in the trial judge's evidentiary rulings, including the exclusion of an omnibus package of documents under the party admissions exception to the hearsay rule and the exclusion of an expert report that lacked necessity.

The appeal was dismissed.