With COVID-19 being top of mind for everyone, it is important to
understand how this affects contractual rights and obligations
under an agreement. This may affect your business in situations in
which you are a party, where you or the other party claims that it
cannot perform its obligations under the agreement as the result of
an event such as the current pandemic.
Normally, Ontario courts will not imply or otherwise permit a
party to claim that it should not be responsible for damages where
their non-performance is a result of an event not contemplated by
the agreement. For this reason we often include force
majeure clauses in agreements, so a party would not be
unduly punished or responsible for the other party’s damages
for events beyond their control. In general terms, a force
majeure clause states that non-performance as a result
of an event outside the party’s control (i.e. a labour
strike, terrorist attack, or a significant pandemic) will not
result in the
