Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII

Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and which French-language case have been the most viewed* on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week:

1. Tremear v. Park Town Motor Hotels Ltd., 1982 CanLII 2683 (SK QB)

[19] To constitute a defence, there must have been an express or implied understanding between the parties whereby the plaintiff gave up her right of action for negligence. The evidence here does not support any such understanding or agreement. There is nothing to warrant a finding that the plaintiff decided to waive her right of action in the event of loss or that she communicated any such decision to the defendant. She did not take the legal risk of loss in fact without redress in law. She was not volens.

(Check for commentary on CanLII Connects)

2. Casterton v. MacIsaac, 2020 ONSC 190 (CanLII)

[126] A person who suffers an injury due to battery may be found contributorily liable for their injury. Section 3 of the Negligence Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. N.1 permits apportionment not only in an action for damages founded on negligence but also more broadly on fault. As noted by the Ontario Court of Appeal, fault “incorporates all intentional wrongdoing, as well as other types of substandard conduct”: Bell Canada v. Cope (Sarnia) Ltd. (1980), 15 C.C.L.T. 170, at p. 180.

(Check for commentary on CanLII Connects)

3. Murphy v. Hart, 1919 CanLII 433 (NB CA)

The rule in such cases is that the burden is on plaintiff to establish negligence, but where the loss is established, or the goods are not returned at all, a sufficient primâ facie case against the bailee is raised to put him upon his defence. The law in such a case presumes negligence to be the cause of the loss or non-return and casts upon the bailee the burden of sheaving that the loss is due to other causes consistent with due care on his part.

(Check for commentary on CanLII Connects)

The most-consulted French-language decision was Pharmaciens (Ordre professionnel des) c Manseau, 2019 CanLII 126385 (QC CDOPQ)

[22] Un aveu est qualifié d’extrajudiciaire lorsqu’il est fait « en dehors de toute instance » ou dans le cadre d’un autre litige. Certaines conditions d’existence doivent être remplies pour qu’il y ait aveu. L’article 2850 du Code civil du Québec donne la définition de l’aveu.

(Check for commentary on CanLII Connects)

* As of January 2014 we measure the total amount of time spent on the pages rather than simply the number of hits; as well, a case once mentioned won’t appear again for three months.