Byatt International SA v. Canworld Shipping Company Limited

In Admiralty Practice, Stays of Proceedings on (Updated )

This was an application to stay the order of the British Columbia Court of Appeal rendered in Byatt International S.A. v Canworld Shipping Company Limited, 2013 BCCA 427, wherein the court ordered that the ship owner was entitled to sub-freight paid into court. The grounds for the application were that an application for leave to appeal the decision had been filed with the Supreme Court of Canada.

Decision: Application dismissed.

Held: The test for a stay pending an appeal is: (1) that there is merit to the appeal in the sense that there is a serious question to be tried; (2) that irreparable harm would result if the stay was refused; and (3) that the inconvenience to the applicant if the stay is refused would be greater than the inconvenience to the respondent if the stay was granted. The merits test involves a consideration of whether the issues raised are of public importance. The issues raised here are not of such importance. This case involves the application of well settled legal principles and the fact that there is an argument the case may have been wrongly decided is not, by itself, sufficient to elevate the issue to one of national importance.