COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

DATE: 20010328

DOCKET: C34023

RE: CLARA KASSTAN (Plaintiff/Appellant) v. THE PUBLIC TRUSTEE, VALERIE PICARD, CATHY PAPPAS, VANI F. SANTI and RANDALL V. JOHNS (Defendants/Respondent)

BEFORE: FINLAYSON, MacPHERSON and SIMMONS JJ.A.

COUNSEL: Marshall Swadron, for the appellant Helder M. Travassos and M. Hannah Lee, for the respondent

HEARD: March 14, 2001

On appeal from the order of Justice J. F. McCartney dated March 3, 2000.

O R A L E N D O R S E M E N T

[1] There is no merit in this appeal. In the last analysis, if the appellant has any complaint at all it is against The Public Trustee as the statutory guardian of her property for obliging her to retain her own counsel, who became the guardian of her person, to put forward a Charter argument in a separate representation. The suggestion that this alleged misconduct on the part of The Public Trustee creates an action in negligence against the lawyer retained by The Public Trustee has no basis in fact or law in the pleadings in this case.

[2] Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed with costs.

Signed: "G.D. Finlayson J.A." "J.C. MacPherson J.A." "J. Simmons J.A."