Christian David Breukelman

The defendants brought a motion to strike the plaintiffs' statement of claim arising from the workplace death of the plaintiffs' son and brother.

The plaintiffs alleged the defendants were negligent in failing to respond to a missed check-in, causing the father to search for and find his deceased son.

The court struck the negligence claims of the mother and sister, finding no recognized or novel duty of care owed to them due to lack of proximity and public policy concerns regarding indeterminate liability.

However, the court allowed the father's negligence claim to proceed based on his status as a rescuer.

The pleadings were struck in their entirety with leave to amend due to violations of the rules of pleading.

The defendants, Toronto Hydro and the City of Toronto, sought leave to issue third-party claims against the plaintiffs (a building owner and two tenants) and various former owners and property managers for contribution and indemnity following a fire in a hydro vault.

The plaintiffs opposed the motions, arguing that covenants to insure in their leases shielded them from liability to each other, rendering the third-party claims legally untenable under the Supreme Court's decisions in T. Eaton Co. and Giffels.

The court granted leave in part, allowing claims against parties in capacities not shielded by the insurance covenants (e.g., former owners, property managers), but dismissed the motions regarding claims against the landlord and tenant in their capacities governed by the leases.

The court also rejected the argument that covenants to insure should be treated as exclusion clauses subject to public policy exceptions.

The defendants, Altus Group Limited and Jason White, brought a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the action, arguing the plaintiff, Melvyn D. Eisen (the Trustee), lacked standing to represent 13 investors in a syndicated mortgage transaction.

The Trustee brought a cross-motion seeking a declaration of standing or, alternatively, to add or substitute the Investor Beneficiaries as plaintiffs.

The court dismissed the defendants' summary judgment motion, finding genuine issues for trial regarding the Trustee's standing and the timing of detrimental reliance.

The court also denied the Trustee leave to bring his cross-motion, concluding that adding or substituting parties at this late stage, after the action was set down for trial, was not warranted given the deliberate tactical choice made by the Trustee and the potential for further delays and prejudice to the defendants.

The applicant brought motions to convert a condominium application and counter-application into an action, consolidate them with an ongoing defamation action, permit the use of discovery evidence across proceedings, and strike a defamation pleading in the counter-application.

The court found the matters were deeply interwoven, involving the same factual matrix regarding the applicant's conduct and social media posts about the condominium board.

To avoid inconsistent findings and multiplicity of proceedings, the court ordered the conversion and consolidation.

The court also granted leave to use discovery evidence and struck the defamation pleading with leave to amend for failing to provide adequate particulars.

The defendants brought a motion for leave to appeal an October 26, 2020 order.

The Divisional Court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal and awarded costs fixed in the amount of $5,000 to the responding party.

The moving parties brought a motion for leave to appeal the September 15, 2020 order of Justice E.M. Morgan.

The Divisional Court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal and awarded costs to the respondents in the amount of $5,000.

The appellant property manager appealed the dismissal of its summary judgment motion, arguing that the respondent condominium corporation's action for construction defects was a nullity because it failed to provide owners with notice under s. 23(2) of the Condominium Act, 1998 before issuing a notice of action.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, taking the rare step of overruling its own previous decision in Medhurst.

The Court held that applying the modern approach to statutory interpretation, non-compliance with the notice provision does not render an action a nullity, as doing so would undermine the consumer protection purpose of the Act and cause injustice to the condominium owners the provision was designed to protect.

The defendant property manager brought a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the plaintiff condominium corporation's action as a nullity.

The defendant argued that the plaintiff failed to comply with the notice requirements under s. 23(2) of the Condominium Act, 1998 before commencing the action.

The court dismissed the motion, finding that the action against the property manager for breach of contract and negligence was not the type of action caught by s. 23(1) of the Act, and therefore the notice requirements did not apply.

Furthermore, the court held that the action commenced with the filing of the Statement of Claim, not the Notice of Action, and that the plaintiff had provided sufficient notice to the owners prior to filing the Statement of Claim.

The court heard multiple motions to strike claims against Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Ontario (HMQ), various Children's Aid Societies (CAS), and an expert witness (Julia Klein).

These claims arose from the use of unreliable hair follicle drug testing by the Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory in child welfare investigations and proceedings, leading to children's apprehension and, in some cases, Crown wardship.

The plaintiffs alleged negligence, breach of Charter rights, bad faith, and other torts against the defendants.

The court granted all motions to strike, finding that HMQ and the CAS did not owe a private law duty of care to the parents or children in their supervisory or investigative roles, as their paramount duty was to the child's best interests.

Many claims were also deemed impermissible collateral attacks on existing court orders.

The claim against the expert witness, Julia Klein, was struck due to witness immunity and a lack of causal connection between her testimony and the alleged damages.

The plaintiff condominium corporation brought a motion to set aside a registrar's order dismissing its construction deficiency action for delay.

The action, which sought $5,000,000 in damages primarily related to elevator issues, was dismissed after the plaintiff inadvertently missed the set down deadline.

The court applied the test from H.B. Fuller Company v. Rogers, finding that the plaintiff adequately explained the delay, moved promptly to set aside the order, and demonstrated that the failure was inadvertent.

Crucially, the court found no significant prejudice to the defendants, as the case relied heavily on documentary evidence which had been preserved.

The motion was granted and the dismissal order was set aside.