Case information

Civil procedure — Appeals — Request for postponement — Right to be represented by lawyer — Appeal with leave — Abusive nature of originating application — Motion to dismiss appeal — Adequacy of reasons — Whether Court of Appeal erred in law in denying applicant’s request for postponement — Whether Court of Appeal erred in law in finding that appeal was improperly initiated — Whether Court of Appeal erred in law in rendering judgment without adequate reasons.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

For many years, the applicant Yvan Drouin had approached government authorities to promote his wait time management system for the health care sector. During his meetings, he presented his business plan, the implementation guide and the software interfaces. In April 2012, he learned in a newspaper of the introduction of a service that was allegedly an exact copy of his system. Believing that his software had been stolen, Mr. Drouin brought an action against a series of legal and natural persons.

The Superior Court allowed the five applications for dismissal made by the respondents and dismissed Mr. Drouin’s originating application. It was of the view that, with respect to the respondents the Attorney General of Quebec and the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec, the application was unfounded in law even if the facts alleged were true. With respect to the other respondents, it was of the view that Mr. Drouin’s lawsuit [TRANSLATION] “is abusive because of its rashness, even if it was instituted in good faith”. The Court of Appeal allowed the five motions to dismiss made by the respondents and dismissed the appeal. It also denied the request for a postponement made by Mr. Drouin at the start of the hearing, finding that he had not acted diligently.