The Ontario Court of Appeal decision in R & G Draper Farms (Keswick) Ltd. v. 1758691 Ontario Inc., 2014 ONCA 278, involved a dispute between two Ontario-based farming businesses over the purchase and sale of carrots and carrot chunks. The parties agreed to resolve the dispute through arbitration in accordance with The Fruit and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation (“DRC”) arbitration rules. The arbitrator awarded damages to the respondent.
The issue arose when the appellant applied to the Superior Court of Justice to set aside the arbitration award approximately two and a half months later. The Arbitration Act, 1991 (the “Act”) provides for a thirty day time period to appeal the arbitration award while the International Commercial Arbitration Act (the “ICAA”) provides for a longer three month time period. Unfortunately, the DRC rules are silent in respect to which arbitration act may apply.
Under s. 2(1) of the Act, the Act applied unless the application of the Act was excluded by law, or the arbitration was “international” under the ICAA definition. The Court of Appeal held that the application of the Act was not excluded by law, and the arbitration was not sufficiently “international” in nature to trigger the ICAA because: (i) the parties both have their place of business in Ontario; (ii) the carrots were grown, processed, sold and resold in Ontario; (iii) the arbitration was held in Ontario; and (iv) the parties did not expressly agree that the subject-matter of the arbitration involved more than one country. As a result, the Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court’s ruling that the Act’s thirty day time period applied and the appellant was out of time to appeal the arbitration award.
If you require legal advice in regards to resolving disputes through arbitration or appealing arbitration awards, please contact us for an initial consultation.
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