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Good evening.

Following are summaries of this week’s civil decisions of the Court of Appeal of Ontario.

In a case that has received much media and judicial attention, Yaiguaje v Chevron Corporation, it appears that the Court has finally put an end to the matter. The Court determined that the shares of Chevron Canada and its assets are not available to satisfy a US$9.5 billion judgment against the ultimate US parent, Chevron Corporation. The Court stated that the separate legal personality of corporations is fundamental to our law, and embodied in statute, and there was no basis for piercing the corporate veil in accordance with the test set out in Transamerica Life Insurance Co. of Canada v. Canada Life Assurance Co., (1996), 28 O.R. (3d) 423. The Court commented that to allow the judgment to be enforced against the shares in, and assets of, Chevron Canada, would be to incorporate into our law the “group enterprise” theory of liability, which holds that where several corporations operate closely as part of the same “group” of corporations, they are in reality a single enterprise and should, accordingly, be responsible for each other’s debts. This theory has been consistently rejected by our courts, and was rejected once again. The Court did, however, significantly reduce the costs awarded to the Chevron corporations, having determined that this was public interest litigation.

Continue Reading ONTARIO COURT OF APPEAL SUMMARIES (MAY 22 – 25)