Court Of Appeal Summaries (December 23 – December 27, 2019)

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah and are continuing to enjoy the holidays.

Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario released during the week of December 23. There were more than we had been expecting!

In Canadian Broadcasting Corporation v. Ferrier, the Court examined the open court principle in the context of police disciplinary hearings and determined that freedom of expression under the Charter was to be considered in determining whether such a hearing should be open to the public or held in camera. The matter was remitted back to the decision maker for reconsideration in accordance with the Court's reasons.

In Morwald-Benevides v. Benevides, the Court discussed the principles governing the appointment of amicus curiae in private family law cases.

Congratulations to Blaneys' own Sheldon Inkol for successfully responding to an appeal in a condominium law matter.

Other topics covered this week included the right of appeal in receivership matters under the BIA, punitive damages for defamation, malicious prosecution, administrative law in the mining law context, breach of contract and breach of confidence.

I wanted to thank all our readers for yet another great year. Our readership continues to climb, thanks, in no small measure, to the good word of all you who follow our blog.

As many of you may know, my partner, Lea Nebel and I have been chairing the last few years a CLE at the OBA of "Top Appeals" from the Court of Appeal over the past year. The program will be a dinner program to take place at the OBA on Thursday, February 27, 2020, so please mark your calendars! Two of the cases we will be featuring this year are Darmar Farms v Sygenta, which deals with the potential new tort of "premature commercialization" and pure economic loss in product liability context, and The Guarantee Company of North America v Royal Bank of Canada regarding the priority of construction trust claims in bankruptcy. We are also lining up our speakers for a third decision that will be featured, so please stay tuned.

Finally, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2020!

Table of Contents

Civil Decisions

Cable Assembly Systems Ltd. v. Barnes, 2019 ONCA 1013

Keywords: Torts, Defamation, Damages, Punitive Damages, Whiten v. Pilot Insurance Co., 2002 SCC 18, Pate Estate v. Galway-Cavendish (Township), 2013 ONCA 669, Filice v. Complex Services Inc., 2018 ONCA 625

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