Simon's Legal Resources

Federal Court - Stare Decisis

. Magren Holdings Ltd v. Canada

In Magren Holdings Ltd v. Canada (Fed CA, 2024) the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed a appeal, this from a dismissed Tax Court appeal, this from a Ministerial assessment "imposing tax on the basis that all of the capital dividends those corporations paid in 2006 were excess dividends", and "where a corporation pays a capital dividend in excess of the balance of its capital dividend account, the corporation is liable for tax".

Here the court considers horizontal stare decisis, here in the federal court:

[99] Absent "“exceptional circumstances”", decisions of a panel of this Court also bind future panels of this Court: Miller v. Canada (Attorney General) 2002 FCA 370, 220 D.L.R. (4th) 149 at para. 9; Feeney v. Canada, 2022 FCA 190, 2022 A.C.W.S. 5833 at para. 16; Chen v. Canada, 2023 FCA 146, 2023 A.C.W.S. 2685. Exceptional circumstances exist "“where the decision was ‘manifestly wrong’, in the sense that the Court overlooked a relevant statutory provision, or case that ought to have been followed”", "“when the decision has been overtaken by subsequent Supreme Court jurisprudence”", or "“where there are compelling reasons to [depart from the previous decision] and correctness prevails over certainty”": Tan v. Canada (Attorney General), 2018 FCA 186, [2019] 2 F.C.R. 648 at para. 31.