Partial Summary Judgment Remains Exceptional: Lessons From Kotsopoulos v. Toronto

A recent decision from Ontario’s highest court has yielded an unusual result regarding Ontario’s ever-evolving summary judgment regime.

Typically, motions for partial summary judgment are difficult to advance and, in many cases, do not proceed to scheduling given their low likelihood of success. However, Kotsopoulos v. Toronto (City), 2026 ONCA 121 (“Kotsopoulos”) raised an unusual procedural question: what happens when a motion that ought not to have been scheduled nevertheless proceeds to be heard?

In Kotsopoulos, the action arose from an incident in which a plaintiff fractured her ankle after stepping into a hole located within a ditch in a municipal road allowance in Toronto. The plaintiff commenced an action against the City of Toronto (the “City”), alleging negligence in the maintenance of the area.