Legal Blog:

Case Conference Judicial Powers

Miller v. Ledra 2023 Ont SCJ

At a case conference for leave to schedule a motion or application or an appeal from an associate judge, the presiding judge may, instead of scheduling the interim proceeding for resolution, actually resolve the issue at hand if the prejudice allowing an adjournment or moving the issue forward would outweigh the prejudice to the losing party of deciding the issue. In this case, the only issue was the production of financial statements for 3 years – even though the respondent denied that the applicant was a shareholder. The judge held that the prejudice to the respondent would be minimal.

Real Property Limitations Act

Bank of Montreal v. Iskenderov et al 2023 Ont CA

A 5-judge panel of the court overruled Anisman v. Drabinsky 2021 Ont CA and decided that an action for a fraudulent conveyance is governed by the 2-year limitation period of the Limitations Act, 2002 rather than the 10-year limitation period of the RPLA. The court also noted that the relief available under the FCA was not the return of title to the name of the fraudulent transferor; rather, it was a declaration that the creditor could treat the transferred property as exigible for the debts that the transferor debtor owed to the creditor.

Damages Not Presumed

In the 2014 decision in Bhasin v. Hrynew, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized a general organizing principle of good faith and the duty of honest performance in contract law. Recognizing the duty, however, was only the first step. Subsequent caselaw has delineated the scope of the duty.

The recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Bhatnagar v. Cresco Labs Inc. 2023 ONCA 401 clarifies how a court should normally assess damages for breach of the duty. The Court of Appeal confirmed that damages for breach of the duty of honest performance will not ordinarily be merely presumed. Instead, aside from exceptional circumstances, the plaintiff must show that the alleged breach actually caused damages and must lead evidence to prove what those damages are. This is in keeping with the normal approach of expectation damages for contractual breach.

Resulting Trust

When a purchaser gratuitously places another person on title, the law presumes that this person, who has contributed nothing, holds the property in trust for the purchaser who paid everything. In the case of Costa v. Costa, a 2022 decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court, the judge dealt with types of contribution required to ground an ownership interest.

On-Again Off-Again

Between 2008 to 2018, a woman and her common law spouse had a classic on-again off-again relationship. Over the years they would live together for some time and then split-up – with the spouse moving into his houseboat. The two would then reconcile and the cycle would continue. No doubt the fact that the two had a child perpetuated this cycle.

Bankruptcy Rescission

In Tran v. Royal Bank of Canada, a 2022 decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Court refused to allow a bankrupt to make her bankruptcy vanish without a trace.

Save Me

The case involved a debtor who owed a bank over $480,000. After the debtor ignored the bank’s demands, the bank obtained judgment and successfully petitioned her into bankruptcy. As is often the case, the bankrupt’s parents came to the rescue. The debtor’s father paid the bank $400,000 (less than 83% of the judgment debt) and took an assignment of the bank’s judgment and claim in bankruptcy.