Legal Blog

Settlement Disclosure

Skymark Finance Corporation v. Ontario, 2023 Ont CA

In a multi-defendant situation, the plaintiff may have a duty to immediately disclose a settlement agreement with one of the defendants to the others who have not yet settled with the plaintiff. The duty arises if the agreement with one defendant changes the litigation landscape with the others. A settlement that changes an adversarial position to a co-operative position changes the litigation landscape. Both the agreement and its terms must be disclosed, not just the agreement’s existence. A failure to disclose under these circumstances is an abuse of process and, consequently, that failure will result in the plaintiff’s action being dismissed.

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