The Court of Appeal continues to signal that common sense – viewed through the lens of what is commercially reasonable – should prevail when interpreting business agreements. We have written about the subject here in the context of a share purchase agreement.
The Court of Appeal recently applied that same kind of practical approach in the interpretation of commercial lease.
In Convocation Flowers Incorporated v. Anisa Holdings Ltd., 2026 ONCA 145, the Court upheld an application judge’s decision that the landlord repudiated the lease by cutting off the tenant’s access to loading docks, even though the lease did not explicitly give the tenant the right to use those loading docks.
When it initially leased the space, the tenant had negotiated an agreement with the former landlord to enlarge certain loading docks at the commercial property. That agreement was included as a schedule to the lease. When a new landlord bought the property, it wanted to use those loading docks for its
