Ai Kang Yi Yuan Enterprises Corp. v. 1098586 B.C. Ltd.
Page 71
[261] In Concord Pacific BCSC, Voith J. (as he then was), whose analysis was
generally affirmed in Concord Pacific BCCA, helpfully summarized the principles that
have developed in Canada, and BC more specifically:
[331] . . . The fact that parties may wish to contract, or that they believe they
have entered into a binding contract, does not make it so. That belief or wish
will engage other principles. It will likely cause the court to strive to assist the
parties and to find meaning in the substance of their agreement: Hoban at
para. 4. In Marquest Industries Ltd. v. Willows Poultry Farms Ltd. (1968), 1
D.L.R. (3d) 513 (B.C. C.A.), the Court, at 517 — 518, said:
[E]very effort should be made by a Court to find a meaning, looking at
substance and not mere form, and the difficulties in interpretation do
not make a clause bad as not being capable of interpretation, so long
as a definite meaning can properly be extracted . . . [I]f the real
intentions of the parties can be collected from the language within the
four corners of the instrument, the Court must give effect to such
intentions by supplying anything necessarily to be inferred and
rejecting what is repugnant to such real intentions so ascertained.
[332] The foregoing passage from Marquest has been relied on numerous
times: see Hoban at para. 47 and Langley at para. 39. See also G.H.L.
Fridman, The Law of Contract in Canada, 6th ed. (Toronto: Thomson
Reuters, 2011) [Fridman's Contract] at 21.
[333] It is also clear that British Columbia courts are more likely than the
courts of other provinces to give legal effect to agreements reached through
negotiation and discussion: Langley at para. 38; Miller v. Jellybean Park
International Inc., 2013 BCSC 1237 (B.C. S.C.) at para. 67 and Brule v.
Rutledge, 2015 BCCA 25 (B.C. C.A.) at para. 45.
[262] What constitutes an "essential" term in an agreement will depend on both the
nature of the agreement and the circumstances of the case: Concord Pacific BCSC
at para. 341; United Gulf Developments Ltd. v. Iskandar, 2008 NSCA 71 at para. 14.
The key question to answer in analysing certainty of terms is whether the parties
have agreed on all matters that are “vital or fundamental” to the arrangement, or
whether they intended to defer legal obligations until a final agreement has been
reached. What constitutes an essential term is fact specific. Different types of
contracts may have different essential terms, though price is generally considered
essential in most contractual contexts.
[263] In Mitsui, Cromwell JA (as he then was), speaking for the Nova Scotia Court
of Appeal, considered an agreement similar in many ways to the one before me in