Case information

Civil procedure — Abuse of process — Whether Court of Appeal erred in holding that motion for extension of time was an abuse of process

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.

In 2018, the Government of Ontario erroneously transferred ownership of the applicant’s vehicle. While this underlying error has since been resolved, the applicant has commenced multiple court proceedings against the Government of Ontario in relation to these events. This action named the Crown in right of Ontario as defendant. In 2021, the Crown requested that the applicant’s various actions be case-managed. In her response to this request, the applicant stated that she intended to abandon this action by consolidating its allegations into one of the other proceedings. Based on these representations, Myers J. deemed this action abandoned, effectively dismissing it. The applicant was not immediately able to consolidate the pleadings by amendment as she intended. While she eventually obtained authorization to do so from the Divisional Court, she also commenced a fresh action that, in substance, accomplished the same thing. That fresh action was dismissed in 2023 following a summary trial; the applicant appealed that dismissal, unsuccessfully. The applicant now seeks to revive the instant case. She moved before the Court of Appeal for an extension of time to appeal its dismissal.

A single judge of the Court of Appeal held that reviving the action would amount to an abuse of process and denied the motion for an extension of time. The applicant sought review of this decision by a full panel of the Court of Appeal. The panel, on its own initiative, held that the motion itself was an abuse of process and dismissed it.