June 18 – Inequality of Bargaining Power

“An inequality of bargaining power may arise in a number of ways.  As Boyle and Percy, Contracts:  Cases and Commentaries(4th ed. 1989), note, at pp. 637-38:

[A person] may be intellectually weaker by reason of a disease of the mind, economically weaker or simply situationally weaker because of temporary circumstances.  Alternatively, the “weakness” may arise out of a special relationship in which trust and confidence has been reposed in the other party.  The comparative weakness or special relationship is, in every case, a fact to be proven.”

Norberg v. Wynrib, 1992 CanLII 65 (SCC) at 33