David S. Strashin

The respondent landlords moved to quash the appellant tenants' appeal from Landlord Tenant Board decisions.

The motion was based on the appeal being out of time (dismissed by a prior judge) and lacking merit as it raised no question of law, and constituted an abuse of process due to the tenants' failure to pay rent and lack of good faith.

The court found no question of law and concluded the appeal was an abuse of process, quashing the appeal and vacating the stay of proceedings.

The moving party, Paul Taylor, sought to vary a motion judge's order that granted a stay of an eviction order on terms, specifically challenging the requirement to pay rent arrears.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario dismissed the motion, finding no error in the motion judge's decision, which had properly applied the test for a stay and respected principles for self-represented litigants.

The court concluded that the motion judge's decision represented an appropriate balancing of all relevant factors and competing interests.

A tenant appealed a Landlord and Tenant Board eviction order to the Divisional Court, claiming the Board failed to accommodate his disabilities by refusing to grant an adjournment when he called on the morning of the hearing.

The Divisional Court dismissed the appeal as devoid of merit and for failure to perfect.

The tenant then appealed to the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal held that the proper procedure was a motion to set aside or vary before a Divisional Court panel, but agreed to hear the matter as if such a motion had been properly brought.

The Court upheld the dismissal, finding the Board member reasonably exercised discretion in refusing the adjournment given the tenant's prior notice, failure to use available rescheduling procedures, pattern of requesting adjournments, and non-payment of rent.