Legal Blog

Try Anything

Clients often ask us: “Can I be sued if I do thus and so?” As you no doubt realise, this is an impossible question to answer in the negative. We answer by explaining that anyone can be sued for anything imaginable. The question therefore is not whether you can be sued but whether the plaintiff will be successful. The case of 1198728 Ontario Inc. v. Tally Capital Ltd., an unreported 1998 decision of the Ontario Court (General Division), is an example.

The facts are a little sketchy, but we gather that a vendor and purchaser entered into an agreement for the sale of land. The vendor’s lawyer did not like the financial arrangements between the vendor and purchaser and advised the vendor not to proceed with the agreement. The purchaser sued not only the vendor, but the vendor’s lawyer. The purchaser claimed that the lawyer committed the tort of inducing the vendor to breach its contract with the purchaser.

The vendor’s lawyer brought a motion moving to have the action dismissed against him on grounds that the purchaser had no cause of action. The motion court judge agreed and stated: “If the circumstances were to form the basis for an action…, that would effectively mean that lawyers would not be at liberty to freely advise their clients with respect to their rights and obligations without fear of being sued by third parties to whom they owed no duty.”

We would have thought that this decision was a foregone conclusion. However, we cease to be surprised at some of the hair-brained actions that are commenced.