ABLawg

Kaddoura v Hanson : The Alberta Rules of Court Regarding Disclosure Work; Delay Tactics Sourced In Old Rule Logic and Old Rule Opinion Do Not

On May 12, 2015

By: Brett Code, Q.C.

PDF Version: Kaddoura v Hanson: The Alberta Rules of Court Regarding Disclosure Work; Delay Tactics Sourced In Old Rule Logic and Old Rule Opinion Do Not

Case Commented On: Kaddoura v Hanson, 2015 ABCA 154

In Kaddoura v Hanson, 2015 ABCA 154, the Alberta Court of Appeal eliminated from current and future consideration several old arguments regularly advanced under the old Rules of Court by parties wanting to avoid complete record disclosure and wanting to use the available motions process and its concomitant rights of appeal to delay the discovery process. In a case concerning the record disclosure obligations of third-partied lawyers alleged by straw buyers in mortgage fraud schemes to bear concurrent or exclusive responsibility for the plaintiff bank’s losses, the Court of Appeal solidified an understanding that the “new” Rules were meant to improve efficiency and reduce cost, in particular by limiting the delay and avoidance tactics previously available and oft-used by litigants under the old Rules. The message to litigants in Alberta is that the new Rules are unambiguous, and they work. Recycled arguments previously used to limit the application of the Rules to current discovery obligations will fail.

ITLOS Special Chamber Prescribes Provisional Measures with Respect to Oil and Gas Activities in Disputed Area in Case Involving Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire

By Nigel Bankes

On May 11, 2015

In International Law, Law of the Sea, Natural Resources, Oil & Gas

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: ITLOS Special Chamber Prescribes Provisional Measures with Respect to Oil and Gas Activities in Disputed Area in Case Involving Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire

Decision Commented On: International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), Special Chamber, Dispute Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean, Order with respect to the prescription of provisional measures, April 25, 2015, ITLOS Case No. 23

By way of a Special Agreement concluded on 3 December 2014, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire submitted a dispute concerning their maritime boundary to a Special Chamber (SC) of ITLOS. The SC was fully constituted on 12 January 2015 and on 27 February 2015 Côte d’Ivoire made a request for the prescription of provisional measures under Article 290(1) of the Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) requiring Ghana to:

take all steps to suspend all ongoing oil exploration and exploitation operations in the disputed area;
refrain from granting any new permit for oil exploration and exploitation in the disputed area;
take all steps necessary to prevent information resulting from past, ongoing or future exploration activities conducted by Ghana, or with its authorization, in the disputed area from being used in any way whatsoever to the detriment of Côte d’Ivoire;
and, generally, take all necessary steps to preserve the continental shelf, its superjacent waters and its subsoil; and
desist and refrain from any unilateral action entailing a risk of prejudice to the rights of Côte d’Ivoire and any unilateral action that might lead to aggravating the dispute.

A Cautionary Tale for Step-Parents and Step-Children

By Jonnette Watson Hamilton

On May 5, 2015

In Family, Wills and Estates

By: Jonnette Watson Hamilton

PDF Version: A Cautionary Tale for Step-Parents and Step-Children

Case Commented On: Peters Estate (Re), 2015 ABQB 168 CanLII

People have many different ways of defining “family” and what being part of a family means to them. The idea that “a family is what you make it” or “families are who you love” is true enough when it comes to inheritance if you make a will. But the assumption that each of us can define family for ourselves is not true if we die without a will. If we die intestate (i.e., without a will), then the law will define our family for us — and the law’s categories are not flexible ones. They are not even twenty-first century categories. While the percentage of Canadian families who correspond to the nuclear-family model has declined, the laws of intestate succession still depend on that model. As a result, for those who die without a will, there is the possibility that the people they considered family will not inherit from them. The Peters Estate case is a cautionary tale about the need for wills or adoption in a modern world where “family” is a constantly changing concept.

Reflections on the Alberta Energy Regulator’s Best-In-Class Regulatory Initiative

By Fenner Stewart

On May 4, 2015

In Energy

By: Fenner Stewart

PDF Version: Reflections on the Alberta Energy Regulator’s Best-In-Class Regulatory Initiative

Initiative Commented On: Alberta Energy Regulator’s Best-In-Class Regulatory Initiative

The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Program on Regulation (PennReg) has now completed its consultation of experts and stakeholders as part of its “Best-In-Class” Regulatory Initiative, which is funded by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). This post discusses the “Best-In-Class” Regulatory Initiative as well as one of PennReg’s three consultations, entitled the “Alberta Dialogue.”

Leave to Appeal granted in Ernst v Alberta Energy Regulator

By Jennifer Koshan

On April 30, 2015

In Constitutional, Energy

By: Jennifer Koshan

PDF Version: Leave to Appeal granted in Ernst v Alberta Energy Regulator

Case commented on: Ernst v Alberta Energy Regulator, 2013 ABQB 537, aff’d 2014 ABCA 285, leave to appeal granted April 30, 2015 (SCC)

Today the Supreme Court (Justices Abella, Karakatsanis and Côté) granted leave to appeal with costs in the cause to Jessica Ernst. The Court’s description of the case is as follows:

Charter of Rights – Constitutional law – Enforcement – Remedy – Freedom of expression – Statutory immunity clause held to preclude adjudication of individual’s action in damages for alleged Charter breach by the regulator – Can a general “protection from action” clause contained within legislation bar a Charter claim for a personal remedy made pursuant to s. 24(1) of the Charter – Can legislation constrain what is considered to be a “just and appropriate” remedy under s. 24(1) of the Charter – Vancouver (City) v. Ward, 2010 SCC 27, [2010] 2 S.C.R. 28.

The applicant owns land near Rosebud, Alberta. She brought an action against: i) EnCana Corporation for damage to her water well and the Rosebud aquifer allegedly caused by its construction, drilling, hydraulic fracturing and other activities in the area; ii) Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, claiming it owes her a duty to protect her water supply and had failed to address her complaints about EnCana; and iii) the respondent regulator, for “negligent administration of a regulatory regime” related to her claims against EnCana. She brought a further claim for damages against the regulator under s. 24(1) of the Charter for alleged breaches of her s. 2(b) Charter rights. She alleges that from November, 2005 to March 2007, the Board’s Compliance Branch refused to accept further communications from her through the usual channels for public communication until she agreed to raise her concerns only with the Board and not publicly through the media or through communications with other citizens. She submits the respondent infringed her s. 2(b) Charter rights both by restricting her communication with it and by using those restrictions to punish her for past public criticisms and prevent her making future public criticisms of the respondent.

The respondent brought an application to strike paragraphs from the Statement of Claim or grant summary judgment in its favour. The Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta granted the application and struck out the applicant’s negligence and Charter claims. While the Court held that the Charter claims were not doomed to fail and did disclose a cause of action, it held that the courts were precluded from considering the claims by the statutory immunity provision in the Energy Resources Conservation Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. E-10. The Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.

There have been several ABlawg posts on the Alberta courts’ earlier decisions in the Ernst litigation. The most relevant to the issue that is now going to the Supreme Court is my post The Charter Issue(s) in Ernst: Awaiting Another Day.