Justice Veit set aside a previous Decision granting permission to the Plaintiffs to resile from a Pleadings amendment agreement between the parties, owing to a misapprehension of the effect of bankruptcy proceedings in Saskatchewan.

The Defendants applied to further amend their Pleadings to add a defence of set-off. Justice Veit denied the Application on the basis that the parties had an amendment agreement in place, and there was no allowance for a further amendment to the Pleadings in that agreement, and no authority existed in Alberta which interpreted the current Rules with respect to the necessity to plead defences. Justice Veit noted that the common law rule that “defences do not need to be pleaded” has been over-ridden, except with respect to matters set out in Rule 13.6(3). Her Ladyship concluded that it was not clear that set-off had to be pleaded in the circumstances. In the result, the pleadings amendment agreement was confirmed.