The City of Vaughan brought a motion to dismiss Canuck Properties Ltd.'s property assessment appeals for the 2022-2024 taxation years on the grounds of issue estoppel and abuse of process.
The City argued that the same issues had been decided in a prior appeal proceeding for the 2017-2020 taxation years, which was settled by the tenant without Canuck's active participation.
The Assessment Review Board found that while the strict requirements for issue estoppel were met, it would be a real injustice to apply the doctrine because Canuck was never served with a Statement of Issues in the prior proceeding, constituting an incurable procedural deficiency.
The Board also declined to dismiss the appeals for abuse of process, finding that preventing relitigation would condone a breach of procedural fairness.
The motion was dismissed.
