Background

Jean-Marie Fontaine is a partner at our Montréal office. Jean-Marie was admitted to the Québec Bar in 2000 and graduated from the Faculty of Law of McGill University with distinction. He is the recipient of both Common Law and Civil Law Degrees.

Areas of Practice

• Jean-Marie is a member of our Insurance and Tort Liability Group in Montréal and the Maritime Law Group.
• His practice encompasses all areas of Maritime Law and particularly, collisions, cargo claims, ship construction disputes, charter party disputes, and arrest of cargo and vessels.
• Jean-Marie's transportation law practice extends to aviation matters involving a variety of claims from manufacturer's liability to passenger and cargo claims.

Professional Experience

• Jean-Marie has represented clients before civil, criminal and administrative courts.
• Jean-Marie has appeared before the Superior Court of Québec, the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal as well as before the Supreme Court on two occasions. He has also appeared before the Canadian Transportation Agency.
• Jean-Marie has also represented parties in arbitrations conducted under the rules of the Association of Maritime Arbitrators of Canada.
• He has drafted and revised bills of lading, charter parties, ship construction agreements, motor carrier service agreement and logistics agreements covering carriage by air, water and road.
• He represents Shipowners and Canadian chartered banks in ship sale and finance transactions.

Representative Work

• He has been involved in a number of cases at the forefront of transportation law in Canada including:
  • Ecu-Line N.V. v. Z.I. Pompey Industries et al.: A Supreme Court decision regarding the applicability of a foreign jurisdiction clause in the context of a marine cargo claim;
  • Phoenix Bulk Carriers v. Kremikovski Trade: A Supreme Court decision defining the circumstances where property that can be arrested in support of an admiralty action and specifically the arrest of cargo;
  • Boutique Jacob v. Pantainer et al.: before the Federal Court of Appeal in which the International Group of P&I Clubs and four major shipping lines intervened on behalf of ocean carriers in a landmark decision dealing with limits of liability in multi-modal carriage;
  • Kent Trade and Finance Inc. v. JPMorgan Chase Bank et al : a decision of the Federal Court of Appeal giving effect to foreign choice of law clauses and maritime liens incorporated in ship supply contracts;
  • He has represented the Canadian Shipowners Association in the context of reviews of proposed increases to pilotage tariffs before the Canadian Transportation Agency;

Professional and Community Activities

• Speaker at the semi-annual conference of the Canadian Board of Marine Underwriters, at open meetings of the Canadian Maritime Law Association and at meetings of the Association of Maritime Arbitrators of Canada.
• Contributor to the Transactions Newsletter on issues of transportation law. He has also co-written annual articles for Lexpert on recent developments in maritime law since 2005.
• Contributor to the Mari-Times electronic Newsletter issued quarterly by the Maritime and Transportation Law Group.
• Member of the Canadian Bar Association.
• Member of the Canadian Maritime Law Association; Chair of the Federal Courts Act and Rules Committee.
• Member of the Association of Maritime Arbitrators of Canada.
• Member of the Grunt Club Inc.
• Member of the Montreal Bar Association Liaison Committee with the Federal Court.