Julian D. Heller

The appellant appealed a master's order granting the respondent leave to maintain an action commenced while its business-name registration had lapsed and while there were alleged filing defaults under corporate disclosure legislation.

The court held the proceeding was not a nullity ab initio and that the saving provisions in the Business Names Act and Corporations Information Act were available.

Applying the statutory three-part tests, the court found sufficient evidence that the non-compliance was inadvertent, that the public had not been deceived or misled, and that the respondent was compliant at the time of the motion.

The appeal and the challenge to the $10,000 costs award were dismissed.

Following a successful appeal by the municipality and elected candidates that upheld the validity of a municipal election, the court determined the costs of the proceedings.

The court held that the unsuccessful challenging candidates were not entitled to have their costs paid by the municipality, despite claiming public interest litigant status.

However, the court ordered the municipality to pay the partial indemnity costs of the successful elected candidates, recognizing they were blameless parties drawn into expensive litigation due to mistakes made by municipal election officials.

The court also ordered one of the challenging candidates to pay the costs of a motion he unreasonably opposed.

The appellants appealed a decision declaring the 2010 municipal elections for Ward 9 City Councillor and Ward 4 TDSB Trustee invalid due to election officials failing to sign Voters List Change Request Forms.

The Divisional Court allowed the appeal, finding that while the failure to sign the forms was an irregularity, it did not affect the result of the elections because the vast majority of the voters had signed declarations confirming their eligibility to vote.

The Court held that the elections were conducted in accordance with the principles of the Municipal Elections Act and set aside the order for by-elections.

The moving party sought costs of her successful motion to intervene as a party in an appeal.

The respondent argued that no costs should be awarded or that costs should be determined by the panel hearing the appeal, alleging that the moving party violated the scope of the permitted intervention by filing prohibited evidence.

The court ordered that the costs of the motion to intervene be determined by the panel hearing the appeal, as they were best positioned to assess compliance with the intervention conditions.

Three parties brought motions to intervene in appeals from a judgment declaring two municipal elections invalid.

The successful candidate in one ward sought to be added as a party, a voter whose vote was discounted sought to intervene as a friend of the court, and a neighbouring municipality sought to intervene as a friend of the court.

The court granted all three motions, finding that the successful candidate had a direct interest, the voter offered a unique perspective on the voting process, and the neighbouring municipality could provide useful context on the impact of the lower court's decision on municipal elections generally.

The appellants, subcontractors on a school construction project, appealed a trial judgment limiting their construction lien recovery to the general contractor's 10 per cent statutory holdback.

The general contractor had posted a lien bond to vacate one of the liens before the primary subcontractor abandoned the project.

The appellants argued that posting security made the full bond amount available to all lien claimants in addition to the statutory holdback, relying on previous case law.

The Divisional Court dismissed the appeal, holding that posting security under section 44 of the Construction Lien Act does not enlarge a contractor's liability beyond the statutory holdback and proper set-offs.

The court explicitly rejected the prior ruling in Francon, confirming that a contractor's liability to lien claimants is restricted to the amount fixed by the Act.