Appellate courts will reluctantly intervene in a previous
judicial interpretation of a commercial agreement.
This is because lower courts are best positioned to wade through
the evidence of what the parties intended when drafting their
contract.
Since the Supreme Court of Canada's 2014 decision,
Sattva v. Creston Moly Corp., 2014 SCC 53, an appeal Court will show
deference to the lower court's contractual interpretation,
unless a party can show an error engaging an "extricable
question of law".
A recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, Earthco
Soil Mixtures Inc. v. Pine Valley Enterprises Inc., 2024 SCC 20, reiterates a number of
key themes about how appeal courts approach business contracts:
