The Duties of a Partner
September 18, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik If you are a partner in a business venture, you not only have risks to outsiders, you have risks arising from your duties to your partners. Many business people enter into partnerships, particularly joint ventures for the holding or development of real estate, with very little if any documentation. […]
Weird Trademark Tales
September 11, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik If you are going to invest thousands of dollars in building up the goodwill associated with the name of your business or product, it simply makes sense to consider registering it as a trademark. This is as true in Thunder Bay and the rest of northwestern Ontario as it […]
Check Your Insurance
September 11, 2022 By Brian Babcock If you are like most of us you think about your property insurance – either commercial or personal – once a year upon renewal, if then. THE ISSUE As with any other type of insurance, you need to review your property insurance anytime you have a significant change – […]
Continuation of a Contract by Conduct
August 24, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik Collecting royalty fees from franchisees is the life blood of a successful franchise operation. THE ISSUE What happens when a franchise agreement expires, but the parties continue to operate as if they still had an agreement? THE CASE That was the issue in Coffee Time Donuts Incorporated v. 2197938 […]
Is That a Fact or a Prediction?
August 1, 2022 By Brian Babcock A common way to recover damages for economic loss in the absence of a contract or physical damage to property is to make a claim for negligent misrepresentation. The test for negligent misrepresentation was conveniently recently repeated in a 2019 Superior Court decision called Doumouras v. Chander: there must […]
When Do Royalty Rights Run with the Land?
July 23, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik A royalty interest in mining claims and leases may be an interest in land, unlike many other contracts affecting the rights of landowners. For historical reasons going back to feudal England, lawmakers have not wanted title to land to be tied up by contractual rights and obligations which may […]
What is a “Bare Trustee”?
July 10, 2022 By Brian Babcock A bare trustee is not a legal representative given property for the benefit of Yogi or even Boo Boo. A bare trustee is an important but often overlooked role in trusts law. THE TERM DEFINED A “bare trust” is described in the leading Ontario Court of Appeal case, Trident […]
Reasonableness Can be a Two-Way Street
July 5, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik When may a commercial landlord reasonably refuse to consent to the assignment of a lease? This issue was reviewed by the Ontario Court of Appeal in the decision of Tabriz Persian Cuisine Inc. v. Highrise Property Group Inc. THE CASE In this case, the tenant attempted to assign its […]
The Risks of Partnerships
June 27, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik Partnerships are popular forms of business organization in Canada. They can be simple to form, and more flexible than corporations, but have the advantage of shared adventure over a sole proprietorship. We may look at some of these advantages further in other articles, but this article is about some […]
Covid Leases and Force Majeure
June 20, 2022 By Brian Babcock Since the pandemic began, everybody involved in commercial real estate has been looking for some definitive guidance as to the effect of a force majeure clause in a lease upon the rights of the parties during the pandemic and as a result of the pandemic. The Ontario Court of […]