Edited by Amanda Kostek
Last week’s Court Rulings from the Alberta Court of King’s Bench, Court of Appeal and SCC.
Interra Energy Services Canada Ltd v Yangarra Resources Ltd, 2026 ABKB 387
Limitation of liability clauses in standard form contracts
Niche Developments Corp. v. 2555436 Alberta Ltd., 2026 ABKB 368
Content of Orders
Interra Energy Services Canada Ltd v Yangarra Resources Ltd, 2026 ABKB 387
The Plaintiff sued for unpaid invoices, and the Defendant defended on the grounds that the Plaintiff supplied defective products and negligent services. One of the threshold issues was whether terms and conditions containing a limitation of liability clause in the quotes for work formed part of the contract between the parties. The Court accepted that “the general rule is that a limitation or exemption clause is not imported into a contract unless it is brought home to the other party so prominently that he or she must be taken to have known it and agreed to it”, and distinguished Court of Appeal authority that involved a custom contract one party simply did not read. In Interra, the limitation of liability clause in the standard form Terms and Conditions was not drawn to the recipient’s attention and on that basis there was a genuine issue for trial that one party “did not have sufficient notice of the limitation of liability clauses and that such clauses are not part of the agreement between the parties.” The Court directed that “the result of this application may seem unfair because it allows a commercial party that did not read terms and conditions that were provided to it on multiple occasions to maintain its claim, but that is the result required by well established law.”
Niche Developments Corp. v. 2555436 Alberta Ltd., 2026 ABKB 368
Justice Mah confirmed that “a formal Judgment or Order is intended to record the outcome of the matter, not to replicate the reasons in the oral or written decision, which speaks for itself” and preferred the minimalist approach to setting out the terms of the order.