OFST 2021

The applicant, a former licensed mortgage broker, requested a hearing before the Financial Services Tribunal to dispute a Notice of Proposal to impose $82,500 in administrative penalties.

Over the course of nearly a year and six pre-hearing conferences, the applicant repeatedly failed to comply with Tribunal orders, retain counsel, or provide medical evidence to support his requests for delay.

The respondent brought a motion to dismiss the proceeding for delay.

The Tribunal issued a Notice of Intention to Dismiss, giving the applicant 30 days to comply.

The applicant failed to respond, and the Tribunal dismissed the request for hearing, ordering the imposition of the administrative penalties.

The Superintendent of Financial Services issued a Notice of Proposal to revoke the mortgage broker and agent licences of the applicants.

The applicants requested a hearing, but their licences expired before the hearing took place and were not renewed.

The Chief Executive Officer of FSRA brought a motion arguing that the Tribunal no longer had jurisdiction to revoke the expired licences.

The Tribunal agreed, finding that the Notice of Proposal had become moot, and dismissed the proceedings pertaining to the individual applicants.

The applicant brought a motion for the recusal of the adjudicator from hearing another recusal motion.

The applicant argued that the adjudicator should recuse himself from hearing the motion for his own recusal due to an apprehension of bias.

The adjudicator declined to recuse himself, finding that the law is well-settled that it is up to the individual adjudicator whose recusal is sought to make the decision on the recusal motion.

Following the dismissal of the applicants' Charter motion to exclude evidence gathered under a summons, the respondent sought costs.

The parties subsequently agreed to a costs order of $500 against the applicants.

The Financial Services Tribunal issued a consent order directing the applicants to pay $500 in costs to the respondent.