Amethyst Haighton

The applicants sought to convert an application into an action and consolidate it with a related action.

The respondents opposed, seeking to strike the action for lack of corporate authority and arguing against consolidation.

The court found that while the action was technically deficient due to improper director authorization, the appropriate remedy was a stay pending delivery of a properly authorized resolution, not dismissal.

The court granted consolidation and conversion of the application to an action, finding substantial overlap in the pleadings and common factual and legal issues.

The applicants were substantially successful and awarded costs of $75,000.

The defendants sought to remove Stikeman Elliott LLP as counsel for the plaintiffs and to require destruction of documents containing their solicitor-client privileged information, alleging improper handling of privileged communications.

The court found that the privilege in the relevant emails was jointly held by both the sellers and the companies in the Ellis Group, and that the amalgamated company (Ellis Packaging Limited) continued to hold the privilege after the share purchase.

The motion was dismissed.

This is an appeal of a decision by the Joint Compliance Audit Committee for the Town of Oakville, which authorized a compliance audit of a municipal councillor's campaign finances.

The appellant argued that the applicant for the audit lacked standing because they were not an elector of the specific ward in which the councillor ran.

The court, applying the modern principle of statutory interpretation and the presumption of consistent expression, found that the relevant statutory provision (s. 88.33(1) of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996) must be read in conjunction with s. 19(7) of the same Act, which limits an elector's voting entitlement to their ward of residence in ward-divided municipalities.

Consequently, the court held that only an elector residing in the specific ward has standing to request a compliance audit for a candidate in that ward.

The Committee's decision to order the audit was set aside due to the applicant's lack of standing.