Business as usual: Tercon Contractors Ltd. v. The Province of BC – Supreme Court of Canada

Articles

The long awaited judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in Tercon Contractors v. British Columbia was announced February 12, 2010. We issued a brief summary of the case that day. In this edition of Construction Law Bulletin we follow up with a more detailed and technical analysis of the case and it’s consequences entitled Business as usual; Tercon Contractors Ltd. v. The Province of BC – Supreme Court of Canada. This includes discussion of the following:

  • Going forward, what should we take from the Tercon case?
  • Practical advice: the three lines of defence.
  • Exclusion clauses are valid – the jargon associated with “fundamental breach” is dead.
  • What exactly was the egregious conduct in Tercon? Watch out – your actions might be viewed through a different lens down the road.
  • A “sufficiently associated” clause would have obviated the problem and saved ten years of litigation.
  • “no contract A” is alive and well.

Please click here to download Business as usual; Tercon Contractors Ltd. v. The Province of BC – Supreme Court of Canada in pdf.