M. Reinhart

The plaintiff grandmother sued her defendant grandson to recover funds she allegedly loaned him to pay estate debts and repair a home.

She brought a motion to amend her Statement of Claim to add allegations of undue influence, breach of fiduciary duty, and punitive damages, as well as to plead evidence obtained during discovery.

The court dismissed the motion, finding it plain and obvious that the proposed amendments could not succeed because undue influence is not a stand-alone cause of action, the material facts for breach of fiduciary duty were not pleaded, and there was no independent actionable wrong to support punitive damages.

The plaintiff commenced a defamation action in Ontario in 2010 against the defendants.

In 2011, the plaintiff commenced a parallel action in Korea for the same defamation claims.

The Korean action was dismissed after the plaintiff failed to comply with an order to post security for costs.

The defendants brought a motion in Ontario to stay the proceeding as an abuse of process and forum non conveniens.

The court granted the motion, finding that the plaintiff's attempt to continue the Ontario action after his Korean action was dismissed on the merits constituted an abuse of process.

The action was permanently stayed and the statement of claim was struck without leave to amend.