{"id":1034,"date":"2020-04-28T21:02:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T01:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=1034"},"modified":"2020-04-28T21:03:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T01:03:00","slug":"ontario-court-of-appeal-on-the-limitation-of-anticipatory-breach-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=1034","title":{"rendered":"Ontario: Court of Appeal on the limitation of anticipatory breach claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Court of Appeal decision in Glen Schnarr & Associates Inc. v. Vector (Georgetown) Limited <\/em><\/a>summarises the principles of the limitation of claims arising from the anticipatory repudiation of a contract:<\/p>\n

\n

[<\/a>29]\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Anticipatory repudiation occurs when a contracting party, \u201cby express language or conduct, or as a matter of implication from what he has said or done, repudiates his contractual obligations before they fall due\u201d: G.H.L. Fridman,\u00a0The Law of Contract in Canada<\/em>, 6th ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2011), at p. 585. The parties concede that LDGL by its correspondence of October 2004 did just that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0[<\/a>30]\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0However, an anticipatory repudiation of a contract does not, in itself, terminate or discharge a contract; it depends on the election made by the non-repudiating party:\u00a0Guarantee Co. of North America v. Gordon Capital Corp.<\/i>,\u00a01999 CanLII 664 (SCC)<\/a>,\u00a0[1999] 3 S.C.R. 423<\/span>, at p. 440<\/span>;\u00a0Brown v. Belleville (City)<\/em>,\u00a02013 ONCA 148<\/span>,\u00a0114 O.R. (3d) 561<\/span><\/a>, at para.\u00a042<\/a><\/span>. As Cronk J.A. stated in the latter decision at para. 45:<\/div>\n
\u00a0It appears to be settled law in Canada that where the innocent party to a repudiatory breach or an anticipatory repudiation wishes to be discharged from the contract, the election to disaffirm the contract must be clearly and unequivocally communicated to the repudiating party within a reasonable time. Communication of the election to disaffirm or terminate the contract may be accomplished directly, by either oral or written words,\u00a0or may be inferred from the conduct of the innocent party in the particular circumstances of the case<\/u>: McCamus, at pp. 659-61. [Emphasis added.]<\/div>\n

[<\/a>31]\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a0Chitty on Contracts<\/em>, 28th ed. (London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1999), Vol. 1, at p. 25-012, the authors write:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Acceptance of a repudiation must be clear and unequivocal and mere inactivity or acquiescence will generally not be regarded as acceptance for this purpose. But there may be circumstances in which a continuing failure to perform will be sufficiently unequivocal to constitute acceptance of a repudiation. It all depends on the \u201cparticular contractual relationship and the particular circumstances of the case.\u201d<\/div>\n

[<\/a>32]\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This commentary was accepted by this court in\u00a0Brown<\/i>\u00a0v. Belleville<\/i>, at para.\u00a048<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>and by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in\u00a0White v. E.B.F. Manufacturing Ltd.<\/em>,\u00a02005 NSCA 167<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0239 N.S.R. (2d) 270<\/span>, at para.\u00a091<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0[<\/a>33]\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The limitation period then depends on the election that is made in response to an anticipatory repudiation:\u00a0Ali v. O-Two Medical Technologies Inc.<\/i>,\u00a02013 ONCA 733<\/span>,\u00a0118 O.R. (3d) 321<\/span><\/a>, at para.\u00a022-27<\/a><\/span>;\u00a0Hurst v. Hancock<\/i>,\u00a02019 ONCA 483<\/span><\/a>, at para.\u00a019<\/a><\/span>.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Court of Appeal decision in Glen Schnarr & Associates Inc. v. Vector (Georgetown) Limited summarises the principles of the limitation of claims arising from the anticipatory repudiation of a contract: [29]\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Anticipatory repudiation occurs when a contracting party, \u201cby express language or conduct, or as a matter of implication from what he has said … Continue reading Ontario: Court of Appeal on the limitation of anticipatory breach claims<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[563,562,43,564],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ontario","tag-anticipatory-breach","tag-contract-law","tag-ontario-court-of-appeal","tag-repudiation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1036,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}