Paul David McCutcheon

The appellant challenged the sale of a cemetery by the Ontario Realty Corporation to a private company proposing to build a crematorium, seeking judicial review of the Director's decision to issue a certificate of air approval and the ORC's environmental assessment.

The Divisional Court dismissed the application.

On appeal, the Court of Appeal affirmed the Divisional Court's decision, finding that the Director's decision was not patently unreasonable and that the ORC correctly concluded it was not required to apply its class environmental assessment process to the purchaser's subsequent planning actions.

The appeal was dismissed with costs.

The plaintiffs claimed damages for historical sexual assaults against multiple defendants.

The plaintiffs entered into Pierringer settlement agreements with all defendants except three, and the action against the settling defendants was dismissed.

The remaining active defendant, Dr. Kerr, moved to set aside the dismissal order, arguing the trial judge might lack jurisdiction to apportion fault to the settling defendants under s. 1 of the Negligence Act.

The motions judge held the court lacked jurisdiction.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, holding that the Superior Court has jurisdiction to determine the degree of fault of the settling defendants, even though they will not be parties at trial, as this avoids prejudice to the non-settling defendants and promotes the public interest in settlement.

The applicant, a residents' association, sought judicial review of decisions by the Ministry of the Environment and the Ontario Realty Corporation relating to the sale of a former psychiatric hospital cemetery to a private purchaser who intended to build a crematorium.

The applicant argued that the MOE Director erred in issuing an air approval without considering fine particulate emissions and that the ORC failed to conduct a proper environmental assessment under the Environmental Assessment Act.

The Divisional Court dismissed the application, finding that the Director's decision was not patently unreasonable given the lack of existing standards for fine particulates at the time, and that the ORC reasonably applied its Class Environmental Assessment, which did not require assessing the private purchaser's subsequent planning actions.

The appellants appealed a trial judgment finding that the respondent was constructively dismissed when his employment contract was unilaterally changed from an indefinite hiring to a fixed-term contract.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, upholding the trial judge's findings on constructive dismissal, the requirement to assign a keyman insurance policy, the calculation of damages based on the previous contract, and the award of a Wallace extension.

The court also declined to order reimbursement for lieu time payments or an accounting for pension payments.