The moving defendants sought to transfer a malicious prosecution and Charter damages action from Toronto to Hamilton for trial.
Applying the holistic Rule 13.1.02 analysis, the court held that although the underlying events and local interest were centred in Hamilton, the plaintiff’s witnesses and counsel were based in Toronto or outside Hamilton, and the proposed venue was not shown to be significantly better.
The court also treated local pre-trial publicity as a relevant contextual consideration when assessing the interests of justice, without making any finding that a fair Hamilton jury trial was impossible.
The motion was dismissed and the responding plaintiff received fixed costs of $10,000 inclusive.
