Legal Blog:

CPL

A certificate of pending litigation (CPL) is a notice registered against title to property informing the world that title to this property is in issue. Any purchaser or mortgagee who then deals with the property does so at its peril. An action to set aside a mortgage or a transfer of land under the Fraudulent Conveyances Act is often joined with a motion for the issuance of a certificate of pending litigation. After all, what good will it do to bring an action to set aside a transfer if, just before trial, the fraudsters simply re-transfer the land to another person complicit in the fraud or, worse yet, sell or mortgage the land to arm’s length third parties?

Sometimes, an action for payment of money will progress in the normal course until the plaintiff realises that the defendant has transferred her only asset to a non-arms’ length person. Does the plaintiff merely continue the action and deal with what seems to be a fraudulent conveyance after judgment or does the plaintiff move for a CPL. In Jodi L Feldman Professional Corporation v. Foulidis, a 2018 decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the plaintiff moved for the CPL.

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