Primer On Contract Interpretation (Part 2)

As mentioned in Part 1, the Alberta Court of Appeal (in Bhasin v. Hrynew) has provided some helpful guidelines to assist with basic contract interpretation.

If you deal with contracts in your job, then here are some tips to see how the courts will interpret your agreements.

From time to time a question comes up about what terms are "implied" in the written agreement. Yes, the terms appear clear to one side, but the other side argues that certain provisions should be included by implication, even though those terms are not specifically written in the contract. What is the Court's view on this? To paraphrase from the judgement:

• Courts are generally against implying terms into a written agreement.