Angus McKay

IKEA brought a motion to dismiss the City of Toronto's property assessment appeals, arguing that the City's expert report improperly relied on confidential information from other proceedings, amounting to an abuse of process.

Alternatively, IKEA sought to postpone the appeals or obtain documentary disclosure.

The Assessment Review Board dismissed the motion, finding that the expert's initial inclusion of the contested references was a mere oversight that had been corrected, which did not meet the threshold for abuse of process.

The Board also declined to postpone the appeals or order disclosure, but granted IKEA an extension of time to serve its responding expert report.

The moving party, Baybridge, brought a motion for an order permitting alternative service of a production motion on non-party property owners.

The underlying appeal was brought by the City of Toronto regarding the assessment of Baybridge's property.

Baybridge sought to compel MPAC to produce documents containing confidential information from other property owners of comparable properties.

The Assessment Review Board granted the motion on consent, ordering that the production motion be served by registered mail to the last known mailing address on the roll, and by fax to the owner's representative if there are outstanding appeals.