Court File and Parties

COURT FILE NO.: CV-20-00648618-0000

DATE: 20210503

SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE – ONTARIO

RE: MELISSA BELL, Plaintiff

and:

CARMELLA GROUSE AND PERTH AVENUE CO-OPERATIVE HOUSING BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Defendants

BEFORE: S.F. Dunphy J.

COUNSEL: Melissa Bell, self-represented

Barry C. Fick, for the defendants

HEARD at Toronto: in writing

ENDORSEMENT

[1] The plaintiff filed a request for an order pursuant to Rule 2.1.01(6) of the Rules of Civil Procedure dismissing this proceeding.

[2] The statement of claim in question is indeed a long and at times confusing affair. It stretches to some 683 paragraphs and 120 pages. It recites evidence liberally and meanders hither and yon seeking to make out a case for $1 million in damages for pain and suffering and emotional distress said to arise from “harassment” and professional negligence. Buried within the dense thicket of evidence pleaded are allegations of failure to accommodate and discrimination.

[3] The defendant’s counsel who filed this request maintains that the issues raised in this claim have been litigated before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and provided the court with the relevant citation of a published decision of the HRTO that appears to consider many of the same facts.

[4] In my view, neither a stay of proceedings nor a dismissal order are appropriate at this point in the proceedings. The conclusion urged upon me by the requesting defendants that the issues in the claim have already been dealt with is not something that is evident on the face of the claim itself. It requires me to reference extrinsic evidence – in this case a lengthy decision of the HRTO – and then to compare the two. In my view, that is not something that ought to be undertaken in the context of Rule 2.1, at least not where the conclusion is not plain and obvious. If, as is suggested, the same issues have been raised and disposed of, the defendants ought to bring the appropriate motion on notice so that the court may have the benefit of both sides of the story.

S.F. Dunphy J.

Date: May 3, 2021