Digest: Graham Building Services AJV v Saskatoon (City), 2018 SKQB 336

• Date: December 03, 2018

Reported as: 2018 SKQB 336

Docket Number: QBG 242/18 JCS , QB18321

Court: Court of Queen's Bench

Date: 2018-12-03

Judges:

• Currie

Subjects:

• Statutes � Interpretation � Arbitration Act, 1992, Section 45(2)

Digest: The applicant joint venturers sought leave to appeal under s. 45(2) of The Arbitration Act, 1992 from an arbitration award made by the respondent arbitrator regarding the agreement between the applicants and the respondent City of Saskatoon. Under the agreement the applicants agreed to build a bridge and 10 kilometres of roadway and exchanges. The applicants and the City disagreed whether the latter had improperly withheld $1,530,000 as liquidated damages for delay in completion of the project. Their dispute was submitted to the arbitrator who ruled that the City was entitled to withhold $1,230,000. The applicants argued that leave to appeal should be granted because the arbitrator failed to consider and apply the prevention principle or misapplied the principle. Counsel for the applicants raised the principle in argument before the arbitrator but he had not referred to in in his decision nor did he identify law relating to the principle.
HELD: Leave to appeal was granted. The court found that the requirements of s. 45(1) and (2) of the Act had been met: the proposed ground of appeal raised a question of law regarding whether the arbitrator used the correct law in his analysis; and as the amount of money was substantial, the appeal was justified because it was important to the parties and determination of the law at issue would...