Condo Law Digest – May 2019

Tall Ships Landing Developments v. Leeds Standard Condominium Co. No. 41, 2019 ONSC 2600
Decision Date: April 25, 2019
http://canlii.ca/t/j000t

This action is one installment in a complex dispute involving a developer, a condominium complex (LSCC No. 41), a property management company, and one of the condominium directors. At the heart of this particular dispute is a Shared Facilities Agreement. The issue that inspired this action seems to have been resolved: it was a dispute over the process by which a new shared facilities manager was chosen.

The respondents argued that the present application should not be heard on its merits because it overlaps with an action before the courts in Toronto, and because the applicant did not comply with the dispute resolution process set out in the Shared Facilities Agreement. They asked Justice Mew to strike the application in its entirety. The applicant argued that the Toronto action does not involve identical parties.

Justice Mew concluded that the application should be stayed on the grounds that the applicant and LSCC No. 41 are bound by the dispute resolution process set out in their Agreement. Depending on the outcome of that process, the claims against the other respondents (the property management company and the director) may or may not be sustainable and worth continuing.

Comment: Justice Mew advised the parties that if negotiation and mediation fail, the parties can obtain resolution of some of the issues through arbitration. If there are still issues to be resolved after the ADR process is exhausted, then he will remain seized of the matter.

Weinstein v. HMQ, 2019 ONSC 2133
Decision Date: April 4, 2019
http://canlii.ca/t/hzjss

In this action, Mr. Weinstein claims against a number of government ministries, Humber College, the YMCA, and the Condominium Regulatory Authority of Ontario. Mr. Weinstein, who was not represented in court, took a skills training course to be a condominium manager. However he is not currently eligible for a condo manager license because he does not have two years’ work experience. The defendants have brought a joint motion to strike the Statement of Claim.

While sympathetic to the plaintiff and to the difficulty of navigating the legal process without a lawyer, Justice Nakatsuru found that the Statement of Claim contained no material facts and did not comply with the law. He ordered it struck, but granted Mr. Weinstein leave to amend the claim and correct its deficiencies. He also granted costs of $500 each to two of the defendants.

Comment: The defendants had argued that Mr. Weinstein should not be granted leave to amend, as it was “plain and obvious” he had no reasonable causes of action. However Judge Nakatsuru found that this would not be right, fair, or in accordance with the law.

Brief Notices:

In Sajadi v. MTCC 648 the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has dismissed Ms Sajadi’s claim of discrimination on the basis of place of origin and family status. Ms Sajadi was accused of running a daycare business out of her unit, which is prohibited under the Declaration. She alleged that the corporation discriminated against her because they did not make similar accusations against others who were also running businesses from their units. In April 2017 an arbitrator dismissed her claims of discrimination and found in favour of the corporation. In this action the adjudicator for the HRTO dismissed Ms Sajadi’s application on the grounds that the arbitrator had already addressed her claim of discrimination.

An appeal has been denied in Patterson v. York Condominium Corporation No. 70. (This case was summarized in the May 2018 edition of the Condo Law Digest.)

About the image: By amalavida.tv – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link