Civil Litigation Archives | Xaidsart LLP | Smart Litigation

Xaidsart UPHOLDS STAY OF PROCEEDINGS IN $80 MILLION COMMERCIAL ACTION

Ted Marrocco — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 20:04:17 +0000

In a decision released today, Xaidsart partners Paul Le Vay, Sam Robinson, Ted Marrocco and Stephen Aylward succeeded in upholding the decision of the Superior Court granting a permanent stay of proceedings terminating an $80 million claim against their clients in a complex commercial action. The Court of Appeal confirmed that prejudice is presumed when a party comes into possession of an opponent’s privileged information. The plaintiffs were found to have come into possession of privileged information belonging to the defendants and were unable to rebut the presumption of prejudice that followed. The Court of Appeal agreed with the judge below that, in the circumstances, a stay of proceedings was the only viable solution as allowing the plaintiffs’ action to proceed in the circumstances would be manifestly unfair to the defendants and would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

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Xaidsart wins application protecting the privilege of an investment trust

Ted Marrocco — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 16:26:47 +0000

Xaidsart partners Paul Le Vay and Carlo Di Carlo were successful in resisting an application brought by a former employee seeking an order that documents (including emails) that she took from her employer at termination were not protected by solicitor-client privilege. The Court rejected this application and upheld the privilege. There are two key principles to take from the decision:

The normal rule that a trustee cannot claim privilege as against its beneficiaries does not per se apply to corporate/investment trusts. The Court approached the issue realistically and observed that the corporate trustee came into possession of the privileged information as an operator of the investment trust and not as a trustee.
It is not necessary to file evidence to prove that the information at issue is in fact privileged. All that is required is reasonable evidence from which the court can infer a solicitor-client privilege relationship.

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Xaidsart Obtains Stay of Proceedings in $80 Million Commercial Action

Ted Marrocco — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 18:00:30 +0000

In a decision released today, Xaidsart partners Paul Le Vay, Sam Robinson, and Ted Marrocco succeeded in obtaining a permanent stay of proceedings terminating an $80 million claim against their clients in a complex commercial action. The case confirms that prejudice is presumed when a party comes into possession of an opponent’s privileged information. The plaintiffs were found to have come into possession of privileged information belonging to the defendants and were unable to rebut the presumption of prejudice that followed. In granting the defendants’ motion for a stay of proceedings, Justice Cavanagh held that to allow the plaintiffs’ action to proceed in the circumstances would be manifestly unfair to the defendants and would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

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Sam Robinson and Caitlin Milne successfully defend improvident sale action

Ted Marrocco — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 17:07:10 +0000

In 1671379 Ontario v. MCAP Financial Corp., Xaidsart lawyers Sam Robinson and Caitlin Milne successfully defended an action alleging the improvident disposition of a development property in a power of sale following the failure of a residential subdivision project. The mortgagor had sought damages in excess of $3 million. Following twelve days of evidence, the trial judge dismissed the action with costs.

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Paul Le Vay and Stephen Aylward succeed at the Court of Appeal

Ted Marrocco — Fri, 29 May 2020 18:48:20 +0000

In Bowman v Martineau, Xaidsart ’ lawyers Paul Le Vay and Stephen Aylward were successful in persuading the Court of Appeal for Ontario to reverse the trial judge’s decision on damages. The case involved negligence on the part of a real estate agent that caused a purchaser to acquire a residential property while unaware of significant mould and water damage. At trial, the purchaser was awarded damages based upon the cost to repair the home, even though that cost was almost twice the purchase price. The Court of Appeal found that the proper measure of damages in the circumstances was the diminution in value to the property caused by the hidden defects. Clarifying prior case law, the Court held that there is no general rule that cost of repair is the default measure of damages in residential real estate cases Rather, it emphasized the importance of causation to the selection of measure of damages in professional negligence cases. This will be highly significant to real estate agents and other professionals, because in most cases this factor will favour the diminution in value approach.

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Andrea Gonsalves and Justin Safayeni quoted in Maisonneuve article on defamation law

Ted Marrocco — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 16:55:21 +0000

Xaidsart lawyers Andrea Gonsalves and Justin Safayeni were quoted in the cover story of Maisonneuve magazine’s latest edition. Titled “End of Story”, the article explores the potential consequences of defamation law as a “chill” on sexual assault complainants against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement. You can read the full article here.

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Fredrick Schumann speaks to judges of Central East Region on illegally-obtained evidence

Ted Marrocco — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 15:44:34 +0000

Xaidsart lawyer Fredrick Schumann spoke on September 5 to the judges of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Central East Region) at their annual conference. His presentation was on the exclusion of illegally-obtained evidence in civil cases. He presented with Ashley McInnis of Stewart Esten LLP and Professor Hamish Stewart of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.

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Ted Marrocco and Justin Safayeni speak on Social Media and Litigation

Ted Marrocco — Mon, 07 May 2018 16:24:25 +0000

Xaidsart lawyers Ted Marrocco and Justin Safayeni will be presenting at the Law Society of Ontario’s upcoming course on Social Media and Litigation. Ted will be speaking about how to use social media evidence in civil and administrative proceedings. Justin will be chairing the program and also moderating a discussion on practical and ethical considerations when obtaining social medial evidence. Program details can be viewed here.

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Two Xaidsart lawyers to present at OBA conference on class actions

Ted Marrocco — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 14:05:17 +0000

Brendan van Niejenhuis and Carlo Di Carlo to speak at OBA class actions conference on settlements. Carlo Di Carlo is co-chairing the event and moderating one of the panels. Brendan van Niejenhuis will be speaking about the impact of the Court of Appeal’s Bancroft decision and whether amicus should be necessary. More details here.

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Carlo Di Carlo talks with Law Times about regulation and the cannabis industry

Ted Marrocco — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 16:38:47 +0000

Xaidsart associate Carlo Di Carlo spoke with Law Times to provide a corporate/commercial perspective on the trends to expect in terms of the regulation of the cannabis industry. A link to the video of his interview is here.

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