DATE: 20050201

DOCKET: C40278

COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

RE:

ROBERT BRYANT (Plaintiff/Appellant) – and – BRIAN E. TURNER and THORNBROOK INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANTS INC. (Defendants/respondents)

BEFORE:

MOLDAVER, BLAIR and LAFORME JJ.A.

COUNSEL:

James J. Feehely

for the plaintiff /appellant

Richard J. Payne

for the defendants/respondents

HEARD & RELEASED ORALLY:

January 28, 2005

On appeal from the judgment of Justice Robert N. Weekes dated June 10, 2003.

E N D O R S E M E N T

[1] The trial judge accepted Mr. Turner’s evidence and found on the basis of that evidence that the agreement was a conditional agreement intended to maximize the respondent’s exposure at $300,000 and dependent on funding being received by the respondent from another project. That condition was not fulfilled. It was open for the trial judge to find, as he did, that the release did not, in effect, constitute an IOU or an agreement in which the respondents acknowledged a debt owing at all, but rather an agreement to pay a ceiling amount in the event of future funding from another project in order to limit their liability. There was evidence to support these findings and we find no basis for interfering.

[2] The appeal is therefore dismissed.

“M.J. Moldaver J.A.”

“R.A. Blair J.A.”

“H.S. LaForme J.A.”