Sounds like the Ontario lawyer opined that since they hadn’t defended in Florida, they didn’t get due process and the Canadian courts wouldn’t enforce the judgment. It also sounds kind of like this was a case of first impression for the court (plus there’s that whole sticky “we knew about the trial but couldn’t be bothered to show up” thing), so I’d guess malpractice wouldn’t lie.
Kind of sucks to be the defendants.
The company that provides errors and omissions insurance for Ontario lawyers made an irrevokable guarantee of $1,000,000 as security when the matter was bumped up the the Supreme Court of Canada. http://www.canlii.org///en/on/onca/doc/2002/2002canlii41738/2002canlii41738.html#_ftn1
(And on the subject of “it’s a small world”, the judge whose interim Court of Appeal security order the parties were trying to change in Beals v. Saldanha while on the way to the SCC was one of the judges who made a costs award against the fellow that is now sueing me.)
From reading the decision, I got the impression that since the plot of land was originally valued at around $8,000 US, they were trying to represent themselves and avoid lawyers fees. Not a good idea, especially in trans-border litigation.
In fairness to the Ontario lawyer, however, the test for recognizing a foreign judgment in Canada has been shifting over the past 15 years. When I was in law school, we were taught that it was very difficult to sue on a foreign judgment in Canada. The common law approach was very protective of Canadian residents and suspicious of foreign courts. If you didn’t attorn to the foreign court, there was a good chance that the foreign judgment would be unenforceable in Canada.
That’s changed drastically in the past 15 years, and Beals is simply the culmination of that trend. But I can see how the Ontario lawyer would have thought that on the unusual facts of this case, where a dispute over a parcel of land valued at $8000 turned into a judgment for close to a million dollars, the foreign judgment would not be enforced by the Canadian courts.
:eek:
In the other thread, you said that they had to bring in outside appeal judges. Does that mean that he’s sued the local judiciary? Here in New York, it isn’t too easy to get declared a persistent vexatious litigant, but once you start suing judges for their judicial rulings, it greases the skids quite nicely.
He has not sued any judges, but he has made many allegations and complaints against several local judges (all of whom, in my opinion, are truly excellent judges and first rate human beings), including:
a) A complaint alleging misconduct by three judges to the Federal Justice Minister;
b) A complaint alleging misconduct by three judges to the Law Review (I think he might be referring to the Law Society of Upper Canada);
c) A complaint alleging misconduct by three judges to the Ontario Judicial Council;
d) A complaint alleging interference of service, horrendous wrong, terrible unfairness, and ruthless acts by one judge to the Federal Justice Minister;
e) A complaint alleging criminal acts, conspiracy, threats, coercion, vicious act, extortion, conspiracy to pervert justice, interference with service, suborning perjury, lying, conspiracy to extort, cheating, stealing, and corruption, by a judge to the Law Society of Upper Canada and to the Federal Justice Minister;
f) A complaint alleging conspiracy to commit fraud by a judge to the Law Society of Upper Canada and to the Federal Justice Minister;
g) A complaint alleging lying, cheating, stealing and corrupt behavior by a judge to the Law Society of Upper Canada;
h) A complaint alleging corrupt behavior by a judge to the Ontario Judicial Council;
i) A complaint alleging a secret assessment hearing and political hate crimes by a judge to the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the United Nations and to Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations;
j) A complaint alleging political hate crimes by five judges to the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the United Nations and to Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations.
I am not aware of any complaints made to the Pope or God.
This is in addition to a boat load of accusations against several lawyers, including myself, and against a law clerk and a process server.
The result of these allegations was that when he appealed to Divisional Court (midway between Superior Court and the Court of Appeal), judges were brought in from about a thousand miles away rather than the local Divisional Court appeal Judges hearing the matter. One of these visiting Divisional Court appeal judges gave me an order for security for costs. Later, three visiting Divisional Court appeal judges tossed the matter up to three judges of the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal sits about a thousand miles away, so the fellow ended up with his lawyer’s bill for the trip to the Great Smoke to argue the appeal, plus a further costs order from the Court of Appeal. He didn’t pay his lawyer, so his lawyer sued him, so he sued me and some other lawyers just for the hell of it.
With this judicial history, and with words like “It strains credulity to the breaking point” in the Court of Appeal’s decision, I think it is safe to say that the judiciary at all levels would be sympathetic to hearing arguments concerning his being vexatious, and tossing his action against me on those and other grounds such as absolute privilege and res judicata. As far as the fellow being persistent goes, to date this is only his first action against me, so I am not holding my breath that the court would find him persistent with respect to me.
I’m hoping that the matter goes away at the pre-trial next week. If it is not dismissed next week (some pre-trial judges do not like to make substantive orders despite having the power to do so), or if it is tossed but the fellow appeals, then I will make a motion for security for costs based on his being vexatious and for an order shutting him down permanently for being both vexatious and persistent.
The one good thing is that the fellow has never sired any children.
What, you’ve never lain awake nights worrying about whether a motion to strike or a motion on a point of law is a better remedy?
Interesting. I had assumed that unless the claimants chose to file pro se, a Florida judge would have required that their attorneys be licensed in the state.
That’s how it works in workers’ comp here, and frankly that’s all I know.
Nah. With me it’s more waking up in the middle of the night thinking that I have missed a court date.
It would be nice to have an off switch.
My style is more waking up in the middle of the night with a “brilliant” argument for the papers I’m working on that usually appears considerably dimmer in the daylight.
Thanks for the rundown on the judicial complaints. I suppose that it would be bad form to penalize a litigant for bringing complaints against judges in the proper forums for reviewing the actions of those judges (though UNHCR is pushing it).
Good luck.