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ARTICLE · 18 MARCH 2024

Stay Off The Slippery And Precarious Slope When Time Is Of The Essence

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"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late" wrote William Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor—a line that would have fit well in the judgement of the Ontario Court of Appeal...

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Simon Crawford
Simon Crawford
Meg Tweedlie
Meg Tweedlie
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Overview

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late" wrote William Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor—a line that would have fit well in the judgement of the Ontario Court of Appeal in its recent decision in 3 Gill Homes Inc. v. 5009796 Ontario Inc. (Kassar Homes),1 a case that turned on the application of the so-called "time is of the essence" clause. We see these clauses in most transactional agreements with critical deadlines, but they don't get much press until one party fails to do something on time. Then they get circled in red as evidence of the intention of the parties that everything was, of course, to happen on very strict timelines in accordance with the agreement.

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