Hi everyone. This week's instalment of Blaney's Ontario Court of Appeal summaries includes decisions covering the following topics: Child Welfare, Family Law (the variation of spousal support where child support has ceased), Leave to Appeal Costs Orders where the costs ordered were set off against other debts (leave not required), and Extension of Time to Appeal (because of a change in the law after the appeal period has expired but before the order was issued and entered). There are also several short endorsements covering issues such as malicious prosecution, contempt, extension of time to perfect appeal and summary judgment, one case in the context of limitation periods and the other in the context of whether admissions made by counsel in argument or on discovery are sufficient to grant summary judgment.
I find the issue raised in the Leighton v Best case interesting. That was a case where the law changed after the appeal period expired but before the order was issued and entered and after the judge who made the order refused to reconsider it on the basis of the change in the law. Even though there was no crystallized intention to appeal before the appeal period expired, leave was granted to extend the time to appeal on the basis of the change in the law. The questions that came to my mind in reading the decision were questions like, How long after the appeal period expires can you seek leave to extend the time to appeal because of a change in the law? Does the order have to remain unsettled at the time the law changed in order to be able to extend the appeal period? If not, can you extend the time to appeal if the law changed one month, one year or five years after the appeal period expired? That can't be the case because otherwise there would never be finality to any decision. But where is the line drawn? Maybe there are answers to some or all of these questions. Unfortunately, these questions were not canvassed in the Leighton v Best decision.
Wishing everyone a nice weekend.
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