Canada / 26 September 2007 / Canada, Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta / Bad Ass Coffee Company of Hawaii Inc. v. Bad Ass Enterprises Inc., Attitude Coffee Corporation and Ron Plucer / 0501 12165
Country | Canada |
Court | Canada, Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta |
Date | 26 September 2007 |
Parties | Bad Ass Coffee Company of Hawaii Inc. v. Bad Ass Enterprises Inc., Attitude Coffee Corporation and Ron Plucer |
Case number | 0501 12165 |
Applicable NYC Provisions | V | V(2) | V(2)(b) |
Source |
2007 ABQB 581 | online: CanLII |
Languages | English |
Summary | Bad Ass Coffee Company of Hawaii Inc. ("BAH") and Bad Ass Enterprises Inc. ("Enterprises") concluded several agreements under a franchise arrangement, through which Enterprises became developers of franchise operations and distributors of Bad Ass brand coffee products in Alberta. A director of Enterprises signed personal guarantees for payment under these agreements. However, these guarantees were not notarized, in violation of the Guarantees Acknowledgment Act of Alberta ("GAA"). A dispute arose out of three agreements, which each contained clauses providing for arbitration in Utah. BAH filed a request for arbitration, but Enterprises objected to the proceedings. BAH filed a petition with the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah for an order compelling arbitration of the dispute. The Court ordered that the arbitration should proceed. After participating in the pre-hearing conference, Enterprises sought to withdraw from the proceedings as it objected to the jurisdiction of the tribunal and declared that they would not participate in the arbitration hearing. The sole arbitrator then decided the case in favor of BAH. After BAH obtained confirmation of the award through a judgment by the Utah District Court, it sought enforcement of that judgment in Canada. Enterprise argued that enforcement judgment which confirmed the award would violate public policy in Alberta because the guarantees were void under the GAA. The Alberta Court of Queen's Bench held that the formal requirements for enforcement had been met, but discussed whether enforcement should be denied on public policy grounds. According to the defendants, enforcement of the judgment was against public policy because the award violated the Alberta Franchises Act. The Court referred to the decision in Beals v. Saldanha ("Beals"), where the Supreme Court of Canada had held that a foreign judgment will not be enforced when the foreign law is contrary to the its view of basic morality. It considered that this authority would also apply in respect of the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. The Court then reviewed the understanding of public policy in Article V(2)(b) NYC, which it stated covered fundamental principles of law and justice in substantive as well as procedural respects. The Court found that while the standard from Beals can be applied when there is a violation of internal law, there was no violation of public policy in this case has not been met and the Utah judgment that confirmed the award should be enforced. Generally, the Court stated that the public policy exception must be narrowly defined to allow the increasingly global marketplace to operate. |
affirmed by : |
Attachment (1)
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