Adrienne Lei

The appellant purchaser appealed the dismissal of her application for the return of a $100,000 deposit after a real estate transaction failed to close.

The purchaser had discovered an open building permit, but the application judge found this requisition could be satisfied by title insurance.

The Court of Appeal upheld the application judge's finding that the vendors were ready to close and the purchaser's failure to respond to the vendor's proposal regarding title insurance caused the transaction to fail.

The appeal was dismissed.

The purchaser applied for the return of a $100,000 deposit after refusing to close a residential real estate transaction due to an outstanding building permit on the property.

The vendors obtained a commitment from a title insurer to insure over the open permit and offered to complete the transaction with a holdback pending closure of the permit.

The court held that, under the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, a commitment for title insurance was sufficient to address the requisition regarding the open permit.

The purchaser failed to act in good faith by prematurely abandoning the transaction before the closing deadline and by not pursuing the available title insurance solution.

The purchaser was therefore in breach of the agreement and was not entitled to recover the deposit.

The appellants appealed a motion judge's decision to strike out their statement of claim against the Law Society of Upper Canada under Rule 21.

The appellants alleged the Law Society was liable in negligence for failing to take appropriate action against lawyers who acted for other parties.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding that the claim was precluded by the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Edwards v. Law Society of Upper Canada due to a lack of proximity between the appellants and the Law Society.