Case information

Contrats – Formation – Droit municipal – Action en passation de titre contre deux municipalités – Convention de règlement préparée par les avocats des parties – Demande d’homologation de la transaction par les municipalités – Est-ce qu’une transaction est intervenue entre les parties? – Les municipalités pouvaient-ils être liées contractuellement sans l’intervention préalable d’une résolution de leurs conseils? – Code civil du Québec, arts. 1385, al. 1 et 2631 – Loi sur les cités et villes, R.L.R.Q. c. C-19, arts. 47 et 350.

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The applicant Mr. Guay is a farmer who leased two parcels of land situated on a lot owned by Ville de Brownsburg-Chatham, which in 2012 granted an 80 year lease of the lot to the Municipalité Régionale de Comté d’Argenteuil. Alleging that he had a right of first refusal, Mr. Guay brought an action against the respondent municipalities to compel transfer of title. In the course of the trial, negotiations were conducted and a settlement agreement was prepared by the parties’ lawyers. The respondent municipalities believed that a transaction had been entered into, and they submitted the agreement to their respective municipal councils for approval during the days that followed. Mr. Guay contended that there was no agreement. The municipalities applied to the Superior Court for the homologation of the transaction. Mr. Guay made an incidental application for disavowal and repudiation of certain acts performed by his former lawyer, the respondent Ms. Davidson, during the resolution process. The Superior Court allowed the municipalities’ joint application for homologation and found that the parties had entered into a transaction. It also dismissed Mr. Guay’s application for disavowal and repudiation and declared it abusive under art. 51 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The Quebec Court of Appeal dismissed Mr. Guay’s appeal, finding that his grounds of appeal had no reasonable chance of success.