COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

CITATION: Heydary Hamilton PC v. Muhammad, 2014 ONCA 84

DATE: 20140130

DOCKET: C57545

Juriansz, Pepall and Pardu JJ.A.

BETWEEN

Heydary Hamilton PC

Appellant

and

Dil Muhammad, Pharm Canada Inc., 7302401 Canada Corp. and Alfred S. Schorr

Respondent

Heydary Hamilton PC, no one appearing

William S. Chalmers and Gail L. Willoughby for the respondent

Heard and released orally: January 27, 2014

On appeal from the judgment of Justice Edward M. Morgan of the Superior Court of Justice, dated July 25, 2013.

ENDORSEMENT

[1] No one appeared for the appellant. Counsel for the appellant was removed from the record on January 24, 2014, as he was unable to get instructions.

[2] In our view Rule 15.04 does not remove any jurisdiction this court has under the Courts of Justice Act on a properly scheduled appeal before it. Rule 15.04 gives the court additional jurisdiction to dismiss an appeal before the hearing date for procedural failure when a party delays the processing of an appeal by not retaining new counsel.

[3] The appellant has known the appeal would come on for hearing today since November 22, 2013, when the appeal was scheduled. The appellant had notice of its counsel’s intention to be removed from the record. If the appellant wished to proceed with this appeal, it could have attended today to request an adjournment. It did not.

[4] In the exceptional circumstances of this case, we dismiss the appeal as abandoned. Costs will be fixed on a partial indemnity basis in the amount of $8,000 all inclusive.

“R. G. Juriansz J.A.”

“S. E. Pepall J.A.”

“G. Pardu J.A.”