Legal Blog

Bylaw Validity & Procedural Fairness

Interpaving Limited v. City of Greater Sudbury 2018 Ont SCJ

City passed a bylaw stating that a bidder could be excluded from eligibility to submit quotations to the City if the bidder were involved in litigation with the City, documented evidence of poor performance existed, or the bidder had demonstrated abusive or threatening behaviour to City employees. Based on the bylaw, the City banned the plaintiff from tendering City projects for 4 years. The contractor contested the ban and the City reconsidered its decision. In the reconsideration, the City referenced and re-confirmed its prior reasons and added a few more. The plaintiff claimed that it was denied procedural fairness. The court held that the bylaw was valid; the City had essentially the same right as a business person to decide with whom it would do business. Further, the procedural unfairness involved in the original decision (because the plaintiff was not given a chance to make any submissions) was cured by the reconsideration process in which the plaintiff was allowed to make submissions.

Written by Jonathan Speigel, the founding partner of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP, leads the litigation and construction practices.