Case information

Civil procedure – Amending pleadings – Summary judgment – Limitation of actions – Laches and acquiescence – Whether equitable doctrines of acquiescence or laches defeat the clear legislative intention of the Limitations Act – Whether the equitable doctrines apply to legal claims as well as to equitable claims – Whether doctrines provide immunity from legal claims where a statutory limitation period still has time to run and where a defendant has not suffered any identifiable prejudice – Limitations Act, RSA 2000, c. L-12, ss. 3(1)(a), 6(4) and 10.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Weatherford Canada Partnership manufactures progressing cavity pumps. Stators, the steel tubes into which a rotor is inserted, are an essential component of these pumps. At all relevant times, Weatherford was supplied with stators by two German companies, Artemis Kautschuk und Kunstoff-Technik GmbH and Wilhelm Kaechele GmbH. In 2006, several of Weatherford’s employees left to form a competing company, eventually named Europump Systems Inc. Europump needed stators to manufacture its pumps and it sought out supply from Artemis and Kaechele. On April 11, 2006, Weatherford filed an action suing several defendants for damages relating to the birth of Europump. Artemis and Kaechele were not parties in the lawsuit. On March 31, 2008, however, Weatherford was granted permission from a chambers judge to amend its statement of claim to include Artemis and Kaechele, and new pleadings were filed. Subsequent to interim proceedings, applications were brought by Artemis and Kaechele in 2016 to amend their respective statements of defence to include a limitation defence and seek summary dismissal of Weatherford’s claim against them.

The Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta granted the applications by Artemis and Kaechele to amend their respective statements of defence to include a limitation defence. The court went on to grant summary judgment, dismissing Weatherford’s claim against Artemis and Kaechele, finding they were entitled to immunity from liability because of the equitable doctrines of acquiescence and laches outlined in s. 10 of the Limitations Act. The Court of Appeal of Alberta dismissed Weatherford’s appeal, finding the chambers judge had made no reviewable errors.