Law360 Canada ( October 8, 2025, 9:35 AM EDT) -- Appeal by attorney general from Federal Court decision. There were two questions of law before the Federal Court. First, could the estate of a deceased member of a class action have claimed damages for breach of s. 11(h) Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) right? If the answer to this was yes, did provincial estates statutes providing for an “alive as of” date prohibit or limit recovery of those Charter damages? The Federal Court answered both questions in the affirmative, holding that an estate’s standing to pursue Charter damages for s. 11(h) claims could be determined by reference to provincial and territorial estates and survival legislation (provincial survival legislation). Section 11(h) of the Charter provided that a person acquitted of an offence had the right not to be tried for it again, and that a person found guilty and punished for an offence had the right not to be tried or punished again for it. The attorney general appealed, arguing that a s. 11(h) Charter right may only be claimed by an individual whose right was breached. It also advanced an alternative argument that in any event, the claim would have been barred by the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity. In other words, as provincial laws could not bind the federal Crown, provincial survival legislation could not have enlarged the liability of the federal Crown....