Robert W. Traves

The appellants appealed a motion judge's decision to strike portions of their Response to a Request for Particulars and Reply.

These struck portions re-introduced allegations of negligence from 2008 and 2009, which a Case Management Master had previously ruled were new causes of action and denied leave to amend the statement of claim to include them.

This Master's decision was upheld on appeal.

The motion judge struck the pleadings based on res judicata, issue estoppel, and abuse of process.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, affirming that re-litigation doctrines apply to decisions of associate justices (Masters) on pleadings motions, and that the motion judge correctly applied the "plain and obvious" test.

The defendants moved to strike the plaintiffs' Response to Demand for Particulars and portions of their Reply.

The plaintiffs had previously been denied leave to amend their statement of claim to add causes of action relating to events in 2008 and 2009, with the court finding those claims were not already pleaded.

The plaintiffs subsequently attempted to assert in their particulars and reply that the original claim did include those causes of action.

The court granted the defendants' motion, holding that the plaintiffs were bound by the prior final decisions under the doctrines of issue estoppel and abuse of process.

The City of Toronto, as Third Party, brought a motion to amend its Statement of Defence to the Third Party Claim to plead two statutory defences under the City of Toronto Act, 2006: failure to provide written notice (s. 42(6)) and that damages were caused by an object on an untraveled portion of the highway (s. 42(4)).

The Defendants opposed the motion, arguing presumed prejudice due to the late stage of the proceedings and that the proposed defences lacked merit.

The court, acting as case manager and trial judge, granted the motion, finding no actual or presumed prejudice and reiterating that the test for allowing an amendment to pleadings is not whether the defence will ultimately succeed at trial.

Oscar Sun, a minor, suffered catastrophic injuries after being hit by a car driven by Sergio Ferreira after exiting a TTC bus.

The plaintiffs (Sun, Chen, Sun) sued Ferreira, TTC, and the City of Toronto.

Ferreira also brought a third-party claim against TTC and the City.

The City, TTC, and Donald Carter brought two motions for summary judgment to dismiss the plaintiffs' action against them and Ferreira's third-party claim, arguing the claims were statute-barred by the Limitations Act, 2002.

The court dismissed both motions, finding a genuine issue requiring a trial regarding the discoverability of the claims and whether it was appropriate to commence legal action earlier, particularly concerning the alleged negligent design of the bus stop and crosswalks.

The court also noted concerns about partial summary judgment.