CITATION: 1658410 Ontario Inc. v. Great Gulf (Dundas) Ltd., 2020 ONSC 428
DIVISIONAL COURT FILE NO.: 241/19 DATE: 20200121
ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE DIVISIONAL COURT
D.L. CORBETT, FAVREAU and GOMERY JJ.
BETWEEN:
1658410 ONTARIO INC. (c.o.b.a. Advance Repairs & Maintenance)
Roy Tofilovski, for the Plaintiff
Plaintiff
– and –
GREAT GULF (DUNDAS) LTD., BALANCE RESIDENTIAL MANAGEMENT LIMITED, TORONTO STANDARD CONDOMINIUM CORPORATION 2514
Jonathan Fine, for the Defendants
Defendants
HEARD at Toronto: January 21, 2020
D.L. CORBETT J. (Orally)
[1] For the reasons that follow, the appeal is dismissed.
[2] The plaintiff’s principal attended at the building after having been terminated as a property maintenance company. He had some words with the defendants’ property manager which were characterized as an angry confrontation by the motions judge.
[3] The plaintiff’s principal demanded to know why the contract had been terminated and the defendants’ property manager had some harsh words to say about the plaintiff’s performance.
[4] The motions judge ordered the defendants to pay contractual damages of about $11,000, a claim that was conceded before the motions judge and which is not challenged on this appeal.
[5] By way of summary judgment, the motions judge dismissed the appellant’s defamation claims and other tort claims. The dismissal of the other tort claims is not appealed before us.
[6] The defamation claims which are a subject matter of this appeal were properly dismissed by the motions judge because the defence of consent applies to the allegedly slanderous words allegedly uttered by the defendants’ property manager during the course of the confrontation.
[7] This was an appropriate case for summary judgment. Although the claim asserted was for $1.9 million dollars in the aggregate, even if the defamation claims had succeeded, the damages in this case would have fallen between de minimis and the monetary jurisdiction of the Small Claims Court.
[8] The impugned words were uttered spontaneously in response to the plaintiff’s public demand for an explanation and would have been fairly understood as the defendant property manager’s opinion of the performance of the plaintiff company and, as was found by the motions judge, there is no evidence that airing of these opinions in a public place has caused any specific damage to the plaintiff. On any proportionality analysis, this case should have proceeded using an efficient and cost-effective process.
[9] The basic context of the confrontation is not contested. The availability of the consent defence clearly arises on the facts. The alleged impugned words would all fall within the umbra of consent: all were responsive to the plaintiff’s inquiry.
[10] We see no error of law and no palpable and overriding error of fact in the motions judge’s disposition of these issues.
[11] On the issue of costs below, we see no error in principle. The sum awarded, while high, was about two-thirds of the defendants’ actual costs. The defendant made an offer which, while it may not have attracted Rule 49 consequences, was something the motions judge was entitled to take into account. It is apparent that the motions judge concluded that the meritorious claim, essentially a collections action, ought to have been in the Small Claims Court, and the costs of the Superior Court proceedings ought to be in favour of the defendant. We see no error in principle in this result.
[12] I have endorsed the Appeal Book and Compendium as follows: “This appeal is dismissed for oral reasons given by D.L. Corbett J., with costs payable by the appellant to the respondent fixed at $15,000.00 inclusive, payable forthwith.”
___________________________ D.L. Corbett J.
I agree
Favreau J.
I agree
Gomery J.
Date of Oral Reasons for Judgment: January 21, 2020
Date of Release: January 23, 2020
CITATION: 1658410 Ontario Inc. v. Great Gulf (Dundas) Ltd., 2020 ONSC 428
DIVISIONAL COURT FILE NO.: 241/19 DATE: 20200121
ONTARIO
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE
DIVISIONAL COURT
D.L. CORBETT, FAVREAU and GOMERY JJ.
BETWEEN:
1658410 ONTARIO INC. (c.o.b.a. Advance Repairs & Maintenance)
Plaintiff
– and –
GREAT GULF (DUNDAS) LTD.,
BALANCE RESIDENTIAL
MANAGEMENT LIMITED, TORONTO STANDARD CONDOMINIUM CORPORATION 2514
Defendants
ORAL REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
D.L. CORBETT J.
Date of Oral Reasons for Judgment: January 21, 2020
Date of Release: January 23, 2020