Court Of Appeal Summaries (August 29 – September 2, 2016)

Hello everyone.

While there were only four substantive civil decisions released by the Court of Appeal this week, three of them were fairly lengthy and of some interest. Victoria University v GE Canada is an appeal from a rent arbitration decision that examines the application of issue estoppel in the context of interpreting the meaning of a lease on how to determine fair market value rent. The court held that while the rent resets every 20 or 30 years on the 100 year lease at issue and a rent arbitration may be required every so often to set the rent if the parties cannot agree, that does not give the parties the right to relitigate the interpretation of the lease and the principles to be applied in setting the rent. The parties are bound by the prior interpretation of the lease made in the earlier arbitration. The Central Auto Parts v Barclay decision was a successful appeal by the Thunder Bay police service from a seven figure judgment made against it for