Towards recovery for payments made under a mistake of law: Air Canada v. British Columbia

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • McInnes, Mitchell

• Introduction: At its simplest, the \"mistake of law doctrine\" holds that money paid under a mistake of law (as opposed to one of fact) is irrevocable. As any restitution lawyer can tell you, however, the doctrine is actually anything but simple. The amount of confusion which it has generated over the years is exceeded only by the amount of contempt which it has engendered. \"Monstrous\", \"most unfortunate\" \"decrepit [and] unsupportable on principle\" - these are just some of the more colourful epithets which have been applied to the doctrine. Fortunately, the Supreme Court of Canada has, in Air Canada v. British Columbia, taken great strides towards dispatching a rule which for too long has produced unjust results and ill-reasoned judgments.

• Date created

  1989

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Restitution
  • Mistake (Law)

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3XK8548V

• License

  © 1989 Mitchell McInnes et al. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.