In Ferguson v. Yorkwest Plumbing Supply Inc. 2022 ONSC 479 Associate Justice Jolley decided that “enough was enough” with roadblocks that the defendant had cosnstruced to delay a simple wrongful dismissal action .
This is what the Defendant did;
1. Defence counsel repeatably ignored Plaintiff’s counsel agreement on dates for discoveries following a failed mediation.
2. The Plaintiff then served a notice of examination 10 days forth, which the defence responded to 7 days later saying that neither he nor his client were available.
3. Again Plaintiff’s counsel asked for dates and again defence counsel ignored him. Plaintiff counsel again served a new notice and this time defence counsel said that he could not attend due to ” medical reasons”.
4. Plaintiff’s counsel served a third notice which the defence also ignored. Plaintiff obtained d a Certificate of Non Attendance and brought a motion before Morgan J. who ordered discoveries to be completed by February 28th and warned that if the defendant failed to comply he would suggest that there be ” an admonishment directed at the Defendant”.
5. The defendant failed to attend on the set date because there was a dispute as to who was to be examined first.
6. Noting that this was a Simplified Procedure of a relatively straightforward dismissal case and the vulnerability of terminated employees, the Court struck the Statement of Defence, leaving the Plaintiff to proceed to a motion for summary judgement in which the Defendant has no say.
If you would like a copy of this case, email me at barry@barryfisher.ca