Morton’s Musings 2016-01-14 07:32:00
Land Holding in Nunavut Article 14 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement provides that almost all lands within a municipality are to be transferred to the municipality (in stages).Additionally, a…
James C Morton
Browne and Dunn applied to lead to new trial
R v Abdulle, 2016 ABCA 5: The rule in Browne v Dunn requires counsel to put a matter to a witness if counsel intends to present contradictory evidence on that…
Parties to a disputed claim
In any court or regulatory tribunal there are a minimum of three participants. First, the party seeking an order. This the prosecutor in a criminal or regulatory matters or the…
Ex turpi doctrine does not shield auditor from claim for not uncovering fraud by corporate management brought by corporation seeking recovery
Livent Inc. v. Deloitte & Touche, 2016 ONCA 11: The trial judge quoted with approval, at para. 272, Lord Mance's observation, made at para. 241 of Stone & Rolls in…
Duty of Good Faith in Contract
Data & Scientific Inc. v Oracle Corp., 2015 ONSC 4178: I do not accept this submission. This is not what the Court said or intended, at least not in this…
Divorce
If you are legally married and your marriage breaks down you must get a divorce in order to remarry. It also is psychologically helpful for many people, when a marriage…
A judge must not direct a jury to find an essential element of an offence
R. v. Budhoo, 2015 ONCA 912: In R. v. Gunning, 2005 SCC 27, 1 S.C.R. 627, the Supreme Court of Canada held that a trial judge should not assess the…
Corroboration
R. v. H.A.K., 2015 ONCA 905: First, the law imposes no requirement that the complainant's evidence be corroborated, whether because of the nature of the offence alleged or otherwise. Indeed,…
Fraud
R. v. Riesberry, 2015 SCC 65: We should first be clear about what Mr. Riesberry's f...
Deterrence and Denunciation; an extremely important sentencing decision
Today's decision in R. v. Lacasse, 2015 SCC 64 is extremely important in terms of sentencing. Among many other points it clarifies when deterrence and denunciation apply most:73] ...
Misapprehension of Evidence
R. v. Milliken, 2015 ONCA 897: A misapprehension of the evidence will constitute a miscarriage of justice if the trial judge was mistaken as to the substance of material parts…
Assisted Suicide
The legalization of assisted suicide says a lot about Canadian society in 2015. Regardless of whether you agree that someone should be entitled to medical assistance to end their life…
Causation in culpable homicide
R. v. Malkowski, 2015 ONCA 887: We begin with the following general principles concerning causation:· the causation standard in motor vehicle offences involvin...
Limitation periods and misnomers
Stechyshyn v. Domljanovic, 2015 ONCA 889: On a motion to correct the name of a defendant on the basis of misnomer, as long as the true defendant would know on…
Don’t Toke and Drive
Under the Criminal Code it is an offence to operate a motor vehicle while your ability to drive is impaired by alcohol or drugs. With the potential for marijuana to…