The Court of Appeal for Ontario dismissed an appeal from an order striking the appellants’ defence for repeated non-compliance with production orders in estate litigation.
The Tax Court struck impugned reply paragraphs about prior audits, charges and a tax evasion plea, finding them irrelevant and prejudicial under Rule 53(1)(a).
The appeal is dismissed because the trial judge did not err: his findings that the appellants engaged in long-standing, contumacious conduct amounting to an abuse of process met the high threshold for striking pleadings, and his discretionary order is entitled to deference; costs of $5,000 are awarded to the respondent.
Associate Judge Harper dismissed the defendant's application because the disputed matters (compliance, alleged forgery, and relevance of additional documents) are properly addressed at trial where credibility findings and the weight of evidence can be made; the court will not impose a preclusion sanction at this interlocutory stage, although plaintiffs ought to have disclosed all relevant documents by now.
The court exercised its discretion to treat Wei's appeal-proceeding evidence as a Rule 4-7 application, found on the balance of probabilities that the application materials did not come to Wei's attention, and accordingly set aside both the Strike Order and the Default Order under Rule 4-7(1) on terms (conditional relief) while granting an extension of time to appeal; the court limited the scope of the de novo appeal and refused to admit new evidence for issues that should have been raised by set-aside application but accepted and considered the Rule 4-7 material.
The court set aside the RBC and BDC third party notices under Rule 3-5(8) because they failed to plead facts establishing any entitlement to contribution/indemnity or other connection to the narrow debt claims and would massively and prejudicially expand straightforward debt litigation into broad public law and Charter inquiries; the MacIntyre NOCC was struck under Rule 9-5(1)(a) against AGC and the Province because, assuming pleaded facts true, it was plain and obvious the claims had no reasonable prospect of success given lack of pleaded proximity/duty, statutory immunity (PHA s.92), failur…
Parts 1 and 3 of the Further Amended Notice of Civil Claim were struck out with leave to amend because the pleadings contained substantial amounts of evidence and unnecessary material and failed to concisely plead material facts and the specific elements required to meet statutory immunities and vicarious liability issues; summary judgment was denied because affidavit evidence was inadequate, hearsay concerns and disputed records created genuine issues for trial; security for costs was denied because plaintiff's impecuniosity and steps taken to address finances made an order disproportionate…
The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal from an order striking pleadings for non-payment of a costs award, and awarded the respondents $25,000 costs.
The court held that claims brought on behalf of the deceased for non-pecuniary loss are barred by WESA and therefore those portions of the NOCC must be struck; conversely, it is not plain and obvious that Mr. Dwyer's personal claims — including as substitute decision-maker and for negligent infliction of mental distress related to the defendants' alleged failure to respect an advance directive and MRA — have no prospect of success, so those claims may proceed and the plaintiff is granted leave to amend; the Rule 9-6 summary dismissal application was refused as premature pending amendment.
The Tax Court gave GLGI appellants a final chance to explain why their appeals should not be struck as abuse of process, with written submissions due by April 24, 2026.