The Quebec Court of Appeal, concerned about opening the “floodgates” for claims against landlords, held that a commercial tenant could not invoke the notion of legal disturbance to stop paying their rent during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to legal experts.
The possibility that health decrees might constitute a legal disturbance has been raised on a number of occasions by trial judges, particularly at the safeguard order stage, but this is the first time that the Appeal Court has addressed the issue.