Nastaran Roushan

The plaintiff, an artist, brought an action for copyright infringement against the defendant, another artist, alleging that the defendant's paintings of crumpled paper infringed the copyright in the plaintiff's 'Classical Series' of paintings.

The court found that while copyright subsisted in the plaintiff's individual paintings, it did not subsist in the series as a whole.

The court dismissed the action, concluding that the defendant's works were not substantial copies or colourable imitations of the plaintiff's works, as the similarities were based on commonplace artistic techniques.

Furthermore, the court found that the defendant had independently created his works using his own photographic models.

The plaintiff sold shares of a real estate brokerage to the defendant purchaser under a share purchase agreement and promissory note for $490,000.

After making several instalment payments, the purchaser stopped paying and alleged numerous misrepresentations and breaches of warranty relating to financial statements, agent rosters, liabilities, and business operations, seeking damages and repayment through a counterclaim.

The court found that the purchaser was a sophisticated businessperson who conducted limited due diligence and knowingly proceeded without contractual protections or price adjustments.

Alleged misrepresentations regarding financial statements, agent numbers, liabilities, and business practices were unsupported, and the purchaser did not rely on them when entering the agreement.

Although the vendor breached the agreement by failing to provide audited financial statements, the breach caused no damage and was effectively waived.

The vendor was therefore entitled to recover the outstanding balance under the promissory note and the counterclaim was dismissed.

The plaintiff objected to the admissibility of a proposed accounting expert retained by the defendants in a commercial dispute involving alleged irregularities in corporate financial records and the valuation of shares.

The objection was based on allegations that the expert lacked independence due to a professional relationship with a trustee in bankruptcy connected to the underlying corporation and that the expert lacked sufficient expertise in industry standards.

The court considered the effect of Rules 4.1 and 53.03 of the Rules of Civil Procedure and whether those provisions impose a higher duty of independence than at common law.

The court held that alleged institutional bias arising from professional connections generally affects the weight of expert evidence rather than its admissibility.

Finding the expert met the Mohan admissibility criteria and possessed sufficient expertise, the court permitted the expert to testify.