Editor’s Note: This post was written as a preview of an upcoming Supreme Court of Canada decision for the Fantasy Courts website and newsletter. Photo by Florian Schmetz on Unsplash.
🏁 The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision just before the holidays in Sainte-Julie (City) v. Investissements Laroda inc., 2025 SCC 44 marks the end of season 13. It ran from September to December and had us make predictions for 12 appeals—the same number as last season.
🔢 We predicted 24 appeals in 2025, down from 39 in 2024. The output from the court is consistent: 43 appeal judgments in 2024 and 44 in 2025. The reduction in cases to predict, however, is a result of the SCC ruling on a number of criminal appeals from the bench.
🔎 Let’s take a closer look at the appeals we did predict:
- Three appeals were allowed, while nine were dismissed.
- Three appeals were unanimous. Nine appeals had dissents.
- We did not see separate concurring reasons (either concurring with the majority or in dissent).
- Three appeals were 5:4 splits (Rioux, Senneville and Kosicki).
- Three appeals were 6:3 splits (B.F., Dorsey, Wilson).
- All justices were in dissent at least once. Justice Côté was in dissent in seven of the 12 appeals.
- Justices Martin and O’Bonsawin were in the majority in 11 of the 12 appeals. Justice Moreau authored four sets of reasons for the majority.
🔮 In terms of predictions, players were correct on average 55% of the time, which is down from 63% last season. 94% correctly predicted Wilson, which was the highest of the appeals. For the remaining appeals, the toughest were:
- In Kosicki v. Toronto and R. v. Rioux, only 11% got it right. Those were both challenging cases as the Court was split 5:4 in both.
- The next most difficult was Dorsey v. Canada. It was a 6:3 split that only 15% got right.
🏆 For this season’s winners, we have a three-way tie for first with some familiar names. VJ, Darin McKinley and Adil Abdulla correctly predicted seven appeals in a row. In second place, we saw Paula Cooper and Ben Sttor with 6 correct each. In third place, we had Grace Jackson and Annie Lamb with 5 right. As there were only 12 appeals to predict, this was a strong showing and only one less than last season’s best of eight right in a row. As usual, gift cards will be sent out to our top three—and, more importantly, bragging rights go to the winners.
Thank you again for playing. The next season should kick off shortly, as soon as the SCC announces the release of the first decision of 2026, which tends to be mid-January.
Previous Case Recap: Sainte-Julie v. Laroda
Sainte-Julie (City) v. Investissements Laroda inc., 2025 SCC 44
Held (9:0): The City’s appeal is dismissed and Laroda’s cross-appeal is allowed in part. The City is ordered to pay Laroda the market value of the land and the case is remanded to the Superior Court to determine the value.
Key points:
- An agreement entered into between the City and the developer when the land reserve was created replaced the City’s former obligation with a new obligation. The performance of that new obligation was deferred. In civil law, such replacement is known as novation.
- Novation is an alteration of an obligation that has two distinct and simultaneous legal consequences: the extinction of the initial relationship, without payment, and the creation of a relationship that is both new and different.
- Novation cannot result from an unintentional act by the parties, but the intention to novate does not need to be confirmed in writing and may be tacit and result from the parties’ conduct. A high threshold of proof is required because the extinction of the former debt entails a renunciation by the creditor of the benefit of its rights.
📊 85% of Fantasy Courts players correctly predicted the outcome.
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-Tom Slade