Legal Blog

Specific Performance

Xiong Zhang v. Meng Zhang 2017 Ont SCJ (MC)

Case of a convoluted real estate transaction that went bad. Purchaser obtained and registered a certificate of pending litigation without notice. The vendor and mortgagee moved to set it aside. The Master held that the property was unique (a key finding for purposes of an action for specific performance) because, due to the quickly rising prices at the time and the tying up of his $40,000 deposit, the purchaser had no equivalent property to be found at the agreed upon purchase price in the neighbourhood he had selected. The Master indicated that the calculation of damages at trial, years down the road, would be highly speculative and inadequate compared to an order for specific performance. This decision expands the definition of “unique”, which previously referenced only the property itself.

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