Value Drug Mart Associates action against Sylvan Lake store and application for injunction

Our client is an association of retail pharmacies that operate stores under the brand "Value Drug Mart" across Alberta.  Each retailer is a party to an individual Operating/Licensing Agreement with our client, Value Drug Mart Associates Ltd. ("VDMA").

One of the association's members has been attempting to sell its Value Drug Mart Store in Sylvan Lake; the Operating/Licensing Agreement provides for a Right of First Refusal ("ROFR") in favour of VDMA, which the owner of the Sylvan Lake store claims is not enforceable.  Our client came to us concerned that the deal selling the Sylvan Lake Store in violation of its ROFR might close before legal action to protect VDMA's rights could be taken.

We assisted Value Drug Mart Associates with preparing application materials for both

• an interim injunction pending trial of the issue of whether the ROFR is valid and enforceable, and
• an interim interim injunction prohibiting the sale of the Sylvan Lake Value Drug Mart prior to a hearing on VDMA's interim injunction application.  

On Wednesday, September 10th, we were successful in obtaining an interim interim injunction, and in setting down the hearing of the interim injunction application for mid-October.  In effect, the sale of the Sylvan Lake store over which our client has a ROFR is now prohibited by order of the court pending the resolution of the issue of the interim injunction.  The interim injunction hearing is now set down for October 16th, 2014.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by Randal Van de Mosselaer and included Kaitlin Long, Gunnar Benediktsson and Val Naranjo.