James M. Longstreet

The plaintiff landlord leased a commercial property to the defendant tenant.

The tenant placed excessive landfill on the property, violating conservation authority regulations.

The landlord terminated the lease and seized the tenant's entire fleet of commercial vehicles, holding them for over four years as security for future remediation costs.

The court found the landlord's distraint was illegal and constituted conversion, as a landlord cannot both terminate a lease and distrain goods, nor can they distrain for non-rent damages.

The landlord was awarded damages for the remediation and site plan costs, while the tenant was awarded damages for the converted chattels and lost income.

After set-off, the tenant was granted a net judgment of $106,771.

The parties sought clarification of a prior order that found an enforceable settlement agreement between them, specifically regarding whether a waiver of child support applied to retroactive or ongoing support.

The court determined that because the prior order incorporating the settlement terms had already been signed and entered, the judge was functus officio and lacked jurisdiction to interpret the agreement's contents or the parties' intentions.

The defendants in an elder abuse and property dispute action brought a third-party claim against the plaintiffs' children, alleging they had maliciously meddled in the family relationship and turned the plaintiffs against the defendants.

The third parties moved to strike the claim under Rule 21.01(1)(b) for disclosing no reasonable cause of action.

The court granted the motion, holding that the law of torts does not regulate family interactions or compensate for bruised feelings, and noted that the tort of alienation of affection was abolished in Ontario in 1978.