Summary

Keywords

Evidence — Objection to testimony seeking to prove existence of verbal contract — Waiver of right to object raised by application judge on own initiative in breach of adversarial principle —Whether breach of adversarial principle ought to have nullified judgment below and served to remit matter back to application judge — Does the application for leave to appeal raise an issue of public importance?

Summary

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The applicant and respondent holding companies each own fifty percent of the shares in the intervener business. In 2017, the respondent applied before the Superior Court to homologate a transaction it allegedly concluded orally with the applicant regarding the sale of its shares. The applicant denied the existence of the transaction, and objected to testimonial evidence being tendered about it. The application judge dismissed the objection to the evidence and found that there had been an offer made and accepted by the parties supporting the existence of the transaction. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. It agreed with the application judge that the applicant effectively waived its right to object to further testimony on the oral agreement.

Lower Court Rulings