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Author: Iwan Saunders

LL.B. (Wales), LL.M. (Ill), M.St. (Oxford).
Professor of Law. Formerly Associate Dean (Academic), Acting Dean (Faculty of Continuing Education), Grievance Advisor and Principal Negotiator (Faculty Association). His teaching interests include Remedies, Unjust Enrichment (Restitution), Torts and Contracts, while his research spans the private law of obligations, with a particular focus on Remedies and Personal Injury, his writing having been cited by courts at all levels across Canada, including eight cases in the Supreme Court.

Punitive Damages Now Possible in Alberta in Fatal Accident Actions

By: Iwan Saunders

PDF Version: Punitive Damages Now Possible in Alberta in Fatal Accident Actions

Case commented on: Steinkrauss v Afridi, 2013 ABCA 417, as clarified at 2014 ABCA 14

As a result of Steinkrauss v Afridi in the Court of Appeal, punitive damages are now possible in Alberta in fatal accident actions.  This post looks at three things: the background to Steinkrauss,what the case means for this and future claimants, and why the Alberta Legislature should fall in line with Steinkrauss and change the law regarding survival actions.

Background to Fatal Accident Actions and Claims for Punitive Damages

At common law survivors had no right of action whatsoever for their own losses through another’s wrongful death, a rule originally established in England in Baker v Bolton in 1808, 170 ER 1033 (KB), where a husband failed to recover anything for the death of his wife in a stagecoach accident.  Eventually the rule was reformed, by a statute colloquially known after its sponsor as Lord Campbell’s Act: An Act for Compensating the Families of Persons Killed by Accidents, 1846, 9 & 10 Vict, c 93.  This Act was immediately imported by the then province of Canada, 10 & 11 Vict, c 6 (1847), and now, in one form or another, all Canadian provinces and territories have similar legislation of their own.  [For analysis of this legislation and of fatal accident actions generally, see my chapters in Ken Cooper-Stephenson, Personal Injury Damages in Canada (2d edition, Carswell 1996), chapters 10 and 11 (631-49, and 651-720).]

What Happens when Parties Operate an Oil Battery Without a Formal Agreement?

Cases Considered: Husky Oil Operations Limited v. Gulf Canada Resources Limited 2008 ABQB 390

PDF Version: What happens when parties operate an oil battery without a formal agreement?

Husky Oil has complicated facts, some complex law (unjust enrichment, fiduciary obligation, rectification) and a confusing judgment, but surely only one possible result. Indeed, we wonder why it ever went to court at all.

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