K. van Rensburg

The defendants brought a motion to amend the class definition in an Ontario securities class action to exclude persons who would be bound by a pending settlement in parallel U.S. class proceedings.

The U.S. settlement was conditional on the Ontario court granting this amendment.

The court applied the Currie factors and recognized the U.S. court's judgment approving the settlement, finding that the U.S. court had a real and substantial connection to the claims, and that the absent class members were accorded procedural fairness and adequate representation.

The court further determined that amending the class was the preferable procedure, as it would facilitate access to justice for the overlapping class members without unfairly prejudicing the remaining class members.

The motion was granted and the class definition was amended.

The defendant brought a motion to strike the plaintiff's Statement of Claim, which sought to impose a resulting or constructive trust over a camp property.

The court found that the plaintiff, having been incorporated in 2011, could not maintain causes of action based on historical events that occurred prior to its incorporation.

The court struck the Statement of Claim and dismissed the action without leave to amend, but without prejudice to the commencement of a fresh proceeding under the Charities Accounting Act or the court's inherent jurisdiction over charities.

The applicants brought an application under s. 140 of the Courts of Justice Act to declare the respondent a vexatious litigant.

The respondent had commenced multiple proceedings against his employer and its employees regarding alleged workplace exposure to hazardous substances, despite his claims having been previously dismissed by the WSIB and the courts as an abuse of process.

The court found that the respondent had persistently and without reasonable grounds instituted vexatious proceedings and conducted them in a vexatious manner.

The application was granted, and the respondent was prohibited from instituting or continuing proceedings without leave of the court.

The defendants moved for summary judgment to dismiss the plaintiffs' statutory claims for secondary market misrepresentation under the Securities Act, arguing the claims were statute-barred by the three-year limitation period in s. 138.14.

The plaintiffs had brought a motion for leave to assert the statutory claims within the limitation period, but the limitation period expired while the court's decision on the leave motion was under reserve.

The court held that it had inherent jurisdiction and authority under the Rules of Civil Procedure to grant the leave order nunc pro tunc (retroactively) to the date the leave motion was argued, applying the actus curiae maxim to prevent injustice caused by the court's delay.

The defendants' motion for summary judgment was dismissed, and the plaintiffs were permitted to amend their statement of claim effective the date the leave motion concluded.