Ella Sophie Casey

The defendants brought a motion for summary judgment to dismiss a tort action arising from a fire that damaged the plaintiff's neighbouring semi-detached house.

The fire was set by an arsonist while the defendants' house was under renovation.

The defendants argued they owed no duty of care to prevent arson and that the arsonist was the sole cause of the damage.

The court dismissed the motion, finding that the defendants owed a duty to take reasonable care to prevent fire damage to the adjoining property, regardless of the precise cause of the fire.

The court concluded that genuine issues for trial remained regarding the standard of care, breach, and causation.

The plaintiff moved to set aside a registrar's order dismissing the action for delay.

The court applied the four-part test from Reid v. Dow Corning Corp. and found that the plaintiff failed to provide an acceptable explanation for the litigation delay, failed to establish inadvertence in missing the deadline, failed to bring the motion promptly, and failed to rebut the presumption of prejudice to the defendants.

The motion was dismissed.