The plaintiffs sought leave to amend their Statement of Claim, approximately 15 years after its issuance, to include particulars from expert reports regarding the defendant Ontario's alleged negligence in placing predatory inmates with the plaintiff Paul Bruno and failing to remove them.
Ontario opposed, arguing the amendments constituted a new, statute-barred cause of action.
The court, applying Rule 26.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure and a "factually oriented" approach to "cause of action" found that the proposed amendments clarified existing claims and did not introduce new material facts or a new cause of action.
The court noted that the issues had been engaged during discovery and expert exchanges, thus causing no non-compensable prejudice to Ontario.
The motion to amend was granted.
