A recent Ontario
decision of
Fairstone Financial Holdings Inc. v.
Duo Bank of Canada
(
Fairstone ) became the first
Canadian case to consider material adverse change
(
MAC ) or material adverse effect
(
MAE ) clauses in the context of
COVID-19. In Fairstone, Duo Bank of Canada sought to invoke
the MAC/MAE clause to exit the transaction but the court did not
allow it to do so. This blog explains the reasoning of the
court and takes a broad look at the law of MAC/MAE clauses within
the context of COVID-19.
MAC/MAE Review
MAC/MAE is generally
defined as the occurrence of unknown events that