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We are always on the lookout for talented professionals to contribute to our team. Singleton Reynolds offers a professional and challenging work environment, with a competitive compensation and benefits package.
A dispute arose respecting who should bear financial responsibility for the costs of a multi-million dollar building remediation project.
A 22-story long-term leasehold apartment complex in Victoria required remediation of the building envelope, which involved the replacement of windows, sliding doors, and bathroom fans which had deteriorated due to reasonable wear and tear. A dispute arose between the landlord and a leaseholder as to who was financially responsible for the project.
The 211 apartment units in the building are leased pursuant to a 99-year lease agreement which expires in 2073. Under the terms of the lease, the landlord has an obligation to repair and maintain the building and the leaseholders collectively pay for the expenses incurred by the landlord in doing so as “operating expenses” under the lease.
The landlord undertook the building envelope remediation project and charged the project costs to the leaseholders as operating expenses under the lease. A leaseholder subsequently commenced litigation against the landlord alleging that the leaseholders were not financially responsible for the project.
We represented the landlord through the entirety of the litigation process, which culminated in a two-week trial in 2019 where the landlord successfully argued that the lease both obligated it to undertake the project and allowed it to charge the entirety of the project costs to the leaseholders as operating expenses under the lease. We also successfully represented the landlord in the leaseholder’s appeal of the trial judgment in 2020, where it was affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
We represented the landlord through the entirety of the litigation process, which culminated in a two-week trial where the landlord successfully argued that the lease both obligated it to undertake the project and allowed it to charge the entirety of the project costs to the leaseholders as operating expenses under the lease.
Through its success at trial and on appeal, the landlord ensured that the building can be kept in good repair for the rest of the term of the lease and the lease will continue to operate in a commercially efficacious manner for the benefit of both the landlord and all of the leaseholders.
Importantly, the court found that the windows, sliding glass doors, and bathroom fans are all inextricably part of the “outer walls” as defined in the lease, based on expert evidence about the building structure. Case law on whether windows and other similar building components form part of the outer walls or exterior structure has been mixed; we expect this case may assist Canadian courts on that issue moving forward.
At the Court of Appeal, it was held that the lease was a standard form contract and therefore the standard of review when considering its interpretation is correctness, not reasonableness. We also expect this result to guide future arguments about standard form contracts and their interpretation in British Columbia.
The landlord’s position regarding its rights and obligations under the lease was confirmed by both the trial and appellate courts in judgments that provide helpful guidance for the future interpretation of leases throughout British Columbia.
More information about this case can be found in the following article: British Columbia Court of Appeal Affirms Principles Applicable to Lease Interpretation
GEA Refrigeration Inc. (“GEA”) is a leading manufacturer of industrial hygienic freezers. GEA’s success is based on the use of unique engineering features that distinguish its freezers from those of its competitors. The misappropriation of GEA’s confidential engineering drawings (the “GEA Drawings”) by former employees was the subject of this litigation.
The central issues in this litigation were the application of the tort of breach of confidence and the springboard doctrine relating to the misappropriation of confidential engineering drawings by GEA’s former employees.
Singleton Reynolds represented GEA throughout the course of this litigation. GEA brought successful pre-trial applications to seal the British Columbia Supreme Court file in order to protect GEA’s confidential information from disclosure during the litigation. This action was litigated over 59 days of trial at the British Columbia Supreme Court and two days before the British Columbia Court of Appeal. GEA succeeded both at trial and on appeal, securing a judgment of more than $7.1 million dollars, plus special costs.
The British Columbia Court of Appeal affirms a significant award for breach of confidence in the high-tech industrial marketplace.
The Court of Appeal’s reasons for judgment in this case provides interesting guidance on the application of the tort of breach of confidence and the damages remedies available to parties’ whose confidential information has been misappropriated. This case stands as a leading authority on these issues in BC. This is particularly important as the Vancouver area continues to grow as a hub for high-tech businesses whose success may be dependent upon the protection of confidential business information.
The British Columbia Supreme Court and the British Columbia Court of Appeal affirmed GEA’s right to protect and profit from its confidential business information in a competitive, technology driven, industrial market.
More information about this case can be found in the following article GEA Refrigeration Inc. v Chang et al.
Since the early 1980s, Ontario’s Construction Lien Act (the Act) had not been holistically reviewed, due in part to a lack of industry consensus. Latterly, a movement had emerged that strongly advocated the legislation of prompt payment.
In early 2015, the Province of Ontario retained us to conduct an expert review (Review), which was to include broad consultation focusing on the issues of modernization, promptness of payment, and efficiency of dispute resolution.
The issue was a) how to conduct an effective consultation process with the construction industry, including contractors, subcontractors, organized labour, suppliers, public and private owners, and others, b) how to identify and properly consider all the relevant issues, and c) how to produce a report that was appropriate to our mandate.
We proceeded to develop a Stakeholders List, and an Issues List, and provide the Stakeholders an Information Package. We then received Stakeholder Submissions and held 30 Consultation Meetings with over 60 Stakeholder groups. As the Review progressed, and the number and the complexity of issues grew, we convened a 15-member expert Advisory Group to discuss the key issues, while direct Stakeholder consultations continued in parallel. On April 30, 2016, we delivered our Report, titled “Striking the Balance”, making 101 recommendations, including the adoption of prompt payment and statutory adjudication in Ontario.
Following the delivery of our Report and its release to the public, the Attorney General conducted a series of feedback meetings that confirmed the existence of a broad industry consensus regarding the recommendations. Subsequently, the Ontario Cabinet approved 98 of the 101 recommendations we had made, and the Attorney General continued our retainer to work with his Ministry to develop draft legislation implementing the approved recommendations.
On May 31, 2017, the Attorney General introduced Bill 142 (the Construction Lien Amendment Act, 2017) for First Reading. Following a further round of consultations, Second Reading on October 4th, and the hearings of the Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly held in October and November, the Bill was unanimously passed by the Ontario Legislative Assembly on December 5th and the new Construction Act received Royal Assent on December 12, 2017. The modernization provisions take effect on July 1, 2018, while the prompt payment and adjudication provisions take effect on October 1, 2019.
Over a period of almost a decade, hundreds of workers built two seven kilometre-long water supply tunnels under the North Shore mountains.
The twin tunnels connect the Capilano and Seymour Reservoirs to each other, and to a giant filtration plant supplying safe, high-quality drinking water to Metro Vancouver. The project cost hundreds of millions of dollars and was completed in 2015.
This Project involved the boring of two, seven-kilometre-long deep rock tunnels in the North Shore mountains of Vancouver. The tunnels were up to 600 metres below surface and had to penetrate multiple rock and water conditions. Although advanced geotechnical reports predicted much of the rock and water structure to be encountered, it was not possible to predict all conditions for the full length of the tunnels.
Problems inevitably arose concerning the rock conditions and one of the tunnel boring machines used to excavate the tunnels was trapped by a rock fall. This eventually led to termination of the contractor and with unresolved issues between the Project owner and contractor, the Project was in jeopardy.
Following termination, immediate action was taken to find a replacement contractor and to attempt to resolve the issues between the original contractor and owner. Litigation was chosen for this purpose and after hearing from multiple experts, reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents, conducting examinations for discovery, the issues were resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties shortly before the commencement of a trial set to last two years.
The issues were resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties shortly before the commencement of a trial set to last two years.
A two-day mediation process resolved the issues, demonstrating the benefits this form of dispute resolution can bring to parties involved in complex commercial litigation.
Notwithstanding the significance of the issues that arose on this Project, it was successfully completed and is now supplying water to the Lower Mainland for the next 100 years.
More information about the Seymour Capilano Twin Tunnels project can be found on the official project website.
Site C will be the third dam and generating station on the Peace River in northeast B.C. The project will provide 1,100 megawatts of capacity and about 5,100 gigawatt hours of energy each year to the province’s integrated electricity system.
Located in the City of Campbell River, the John Hart Generating Station has been in operation since 1947. The facility is currently being upgraded to ensure the station continues to deliver clean energy for years to come. Construction is expected to be completed in 2018/2019.
These mega projects included the design, procurement and construction of multiple major civil, structural and mechanical components over an extended period, involving thousands of workers and billions of dollars in capital cost.
Choosing the right parties to perform fairness monitoring was critical and our services were engaged to maximize that prospect.
Our services were retained as an independent Fairness Monitor to avoid any appearance of unfairness in the procurement process. Our task was to monitor all communications between the project sponsor (BC Hydro) and the Proponents responding to both a Request for Qualifications and a Request for Proposals, and to review all correspondence between BC Hydro and the Project Evaluation Team. Additionally, we reviewed all procurement documents and contracts, attended all Collaborative and Evaluation meetings, and briefed Evaluators, the Project Team and the Proponents on fairness principles and the importance of compliance.
We reviewed all procurement documents and contracts, attended all Collaborative and Evaluation meetings, and briefed Evaluators, the Project Team and the Proponents on fairness principles and the importance of compliance.
The Project Sponsor and the Project Team and Proponents were keenly aware of our involvement as Fairness Monitor and our participation in each step of the procurement process. We were consulted by both the Project Team and the Proponents to resolve perceived fairness issues as they arose, without impacting the close relationship between the Project Sponsor and Proponents.
After two years of procurement activity, all potential and real fairness issues were resolved without any lingering concern and without any threat of the process being set aside due to bias, lack of transparency or general unfairness.
More information about the Site C Clean Energy Project can be found on the official project website.
The Evergreen Line is an 11-kilometre extension to the existing SkyTrain system in Metro Vancouver, seamlessly integrating with the Millennium Line at Lougheed Town Centre Station.
Delays on major infrastructure projects can be costly and cause significant inconvenience to the public.
Singleton Reynolds was hired by the project sponsor to quickly and efficiently resolve disputes during construction to avoid delays and lengthy litigation or arbitration.
We were hired to monitor the project from beginning to end and assist in resolving issues as they arose. A proactive, ears-to-the-ground approach, exemplary record keeping, and ongoing communications between stakeholders were at the heart of our strategy. The project manager at SNC Lavalin regularly provided detailed updates, and we attended the site several times to review anticipated issues with multiple stakeholders. We followed this up with regular site visits to identified problem areas to gain a better understanding of stakeholder viewpoints and concerns.
The project manager at SNC Lavalin regularly provided detailed updates, and we attended the site several times to review anticipated issues with multiple stakeholders.
The owner’s representatives, the contractor, and the consultants were keenly aware of our expertise in the construction industry and the advantage of avoiding adversity and lengthy dispute resolution.
Significant issues arose during the project. However, Singleton Reynolds played a defining role in facilitating collaboration between stakeholders and resolving problems with speed and skill, which helped the Evergreen Line launch on time and budget.