Hicks v. Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, 2016 HRTO 771

Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario

B E T W E E N:

Anthony Hicks

Applicant

-and-

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Respondent

DECISION

Adjudicator: Ken Bhattacharjee

Date: June 7, 2016

Citation: 2016 HRTO 771

Indexed as: Hicks v. Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

APPEARANCES

Anthony Hicks, Applicant

No one appearing

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Respondent

Dan Palayew, Counsel

1The applicant filed an Application under s. 34 of the Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19, as amended (the “Code”), but failed to appear for a summary hearing. I issued an oral decision dismissing his Application with written reasons to follow. The following are my reasons.

2On January 11, 2016, the applicant filed an Application against the respondent.

3On February 29, 2016, the Tribunal issued a Case Assessment Direction, which directed that a summary hearing be held to decide whether the Application should be dismissed on a preliminary basis.

4On April 7, 2016, the Tribunal issued a Notice of Summary Hearing to the parties by email and regular mail, which informed them that the hearing was scheduled for June 6, 2016 at 1:30 PM. The Notice directed the parties to call a phone number and enter a conference identification number, both of which were provided in the Notice. The Notice also warned the parties that if they failed to attend the hearing, the Tribunal may take a number of steps, including dismissing the Application as abandoned if the applicant failed to attend, or take any other action that the Tribunal considered appropriate. The Notice that was sent to the applicant was not returned to the Tribunal as undeliverable.

5On June 6, 2016, the respondent called into the conference call at the time that was set out in the Notice of Summary Hearing, but the applicant did not. The Tribunal’s standard practice where a party does not attend is to confirm in the Tribunal’s file that the Hearing Notice was sent to the missing party, and wait half an hour. If the party is still not present, the Tribunal proceeds in the party’s absence without further notice to that party. Where the applicant is not present, this will generally lead to the dismissal of the Application. See Edward v. Moda at Home, 2009 HRTO 568 at para. 2.

6I confirmed in the file that the applicant was aware of the summary hearing, and after waiting for half an hour, I dismissed the Application against the respondent.

7The Application is dismissed.