How have the courts in BC considered the formation of a contract?

Mr. Justice Leask heard the parties on January 8, 2015. He identified the question of agreement to the indemnity clause as the key issue for determination: had the parties reached agreement on essential terms, and would a reasonable third-party observer conclude from the documents and from the parties’ conduct that the parties had intended to enter into binding legal relations? He concluded that a contract had not been formed. In doing so he relied upon Beck v. Bachman, 2014 BCSC 1996, in which the formation of a contract was rejected in circumstances in which counsel had reached agreement on “the basic terms” of a divorce settlement but the parties had not agreed on the form of security for spousal support, a term found in the circumstances to be essential to the formation of an agreement.