Vexatious Litigant (LTB)

Caselaw.Ninja, Riverview Group Publishing 2021 ©
Date Retrieved:	2024-10-31
CLNP Page ID:	1990
Page Categories:	[Hearing Process (LTB)]
Citation:	Vexatious Litigant (LTB), CLNP 1990, <https://rvt.link/z>, retrieved on 2024-10-31
Editor:	Sharvey
Last Updated:	2022/09/01

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TST-99108-18 (Re), 2019 CanLII 134616 (ON LTB)

7. The Interim Order also provided notice that it was considering making a finding that the Tenant is a vexatious litigant with respect to the tenancy at issue in these applications.

8. Both parties were invited to provide the Board with submissions on whether I should exercise my authority to dismiss these applications as an abuse of process and declare the Tenant to be a vexatious litigant.

9. Based on the submissions received, I find there is no merit to any of these applications and they shall be dismissed accordingly. I also find that the Tenant is a vexatious litigant for the reasons that follow.

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16. The Social Justice Tribunals Ontario Common Rules (“the Common Rules”) provide:

A8.1 The tribunal may make such orders or give such directions in proceedings before it as it considers proper to prevent abuse of its processes.

A8.2 Where the tribunal finds that a person has persistently instituted vexatious proceedings or conducted a proceeding in a vexatious manner, the tribunal may find that person to be a vexatious litigant and dismiss the proceeding as an abuse of process for that reason. It may also require a person found to be a vexatious litigant to obtain permission from the tribunal to commence further proceedings or take further steps in a proceeding.

17. Pursuant to the Common Rules, the Board has the authority to find a person to be a vexatious litigant. Such a determination may come as a result of a motion made by a party or the Board’s own motion. Once the process has been initiated the Board is required to examine the facts of each case applying the test established in the leading case Lang Michener Lash Johnston v. Fabian, [1987] O.J. No . 355 (H.C.) at paragraph 20 the Court summarised the factors which may be considered in determining whether an individual is a vexatious litigant first described by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Foy v. Foy (No.2) (1979), 1979 CanLII 1631 (ON CA), 26 O.R. (2d) 220:

(a) the bringing of one or more actions to determine an issue which has already been determined by a court of competent jurisdiction constitutes a vexatious proceeding;

(b) where it is obvious that an action cannot succeed, or if the action would lead to no possible good, or if no reasonable person can reasonably expect to obtain relief, the action is vexatious;

(c) vexatious actions include those brought for an improper purpose, including the harassment and oppression of other parties by multifarious proceedings brought for purposes other than the assertion of legitimate rights;

(d) it is a general characteristic of vexatious proceedings that grounds and issues raised tend to be rolled forward into subsequent actions and repeated and supplemented, often with actions brought against the lawyers who have acted for or against the litigant in earlier proceedings;

(e) in determining whether proceedings are vexatious, the court must look at the whole history of the matter and not just whether there was originally a good cause of action;

(f) the failure of the person instituting the proceedings to pay the costs of unsuccessful proceedings is one factor to be considered in determining whether proceedings are vexatious; and

(g) the respondent's conduct in persistently taking unsuccessful appeals from judicial decisions can be considered vexatious conduct of legal proceedings.

Emphasis is added

18. It is unnecessary for all of the above factors to be present in order for an individual to be declared a vexatious litigant. On this issue, see Currie v. Halton Regional Police Services Board, 2003 CanLII 7815 at para. 16 (Ont. C.A.).

19. In order to declare the Tenant to be a vexatious litigant, I must be satisfied on an objective standard that the applicant has persistently and without reasonable grounds instituted vexatious proceedings or conducted herself in a vexatious manner during the proceedings (see Foy at para. 26).

Kalra v M F Arnsby Management, 2021 CanLII 76870 (ON LTB)

2. The Landlord requested two further orders: first, a determination that the Tenants “have persistently instituted vexatious proceedings” with a finding that the Tenants are “vexatious litigants” pursuant to Rule A8.2 of the Social Justice Tribunals Ontario (SJTO) Common Rules; and second, an order requiring the Tenants to pay party costs to the Landlord.

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10. Declaring a party to be a vexatious litigant is an extreme remedy. Although I am satisfied that the Tenants’ repeated filing of applications, which generally lacked sufficient detail to proceed, was unreasonable, a waste of time and amounted to an abuse of process, I am not prepared to declare the Tenants to be vexatious litigants at this time. I say this because despite the fact that the Tenants’ four applications against the Landlord bear some of the factors set out in Lang Michener Lash Johnston v. Fabian, looking at the whole history of the matter, and considering the nature of the applications, am of the view that such a declaration is premature. The Tenants attempted to comply with the directions of the Board, and it is not clear why they did not attend the hearing of the three application before the Board on January 6, 2021. That determination of being vexatious litigants, however, may come in the future, provided the Tenants continue to file applications lacking sufficient particulars.

SWT-01767-17 (Re), 2017 CanLII 49034 (ON LTB)

12. In order to declare the Tenant to be a vexatious litigant, I must be satisfied on an objective standard that the applicant has persistently and without reasonable grounds instituted vexatious proceedings or conducted himself in a vexatious manner during the proceedings.[6] While the Tenant’s assertions in the earlier review request were far from compelling, I do not find that the request along with the present defective application, establishes a pattern of vexatious litigation. It must also be noted that the Tenant’s request for a review was ultimately filed in response to the Landlords’ own application, not the Tenant’s.

13. While a search of past applications through Board records reveals several past proceedings in which “HW” was either an applicant or a respondent, all of these applications were heard in the Toronto area, specifically at the Board’s Toronto South office, some distance from the present proceedings. Although the Tenant’s name is far from common, without further evidence, I cannot find that this Tenant and the Toronto HW are one and the same.

14. On the Landlords’ own evidence, the Tenant tends to raise baseless complaints directly to the Landlords, resulting in wasted time and resources. Only very recently has he resorted to actions through the Board. This conduct could make him arguably a nuisance tenant and possibly vexatious in a general sense, but not a vexatious litigant within the definition described by the Courts above.

15. In light of all of the circumstances, I do not find that the Landlords have demonstrated a sufficient pattern of abuse to the Board’s processes or that he “persistently instituted vexatious proceedings or conducted a proceeding in a vexatious manner” that would warrant a finding that he is a vexatious litigant. It may well be that the Landlords’ motion is simply premature.

16. This order contains all of the reasons in this matter and no further reasons will issue.

TST-69169-15 (Re), 2016 CanLII 69271 (ON LTB)

2. Prior to the hearing the Landlord’s representatives gave notice that they intend to bring a motion at the hearing for a determination that the Tenant is a vexatious litigant. As the Tenant’s request to withdraw the application was granted, the hearing was held only for the Landlord’s motion.

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58. In determining whether the Tenant is a vexatious litigant, I may have regard to any application before the Board in which the Tenant is involved. This motion, therefore, is not specific to any one application or any one rental unit. Not all of the Tenant’s applications have been with respect to the same rental unit. The issue in this motion is the Tenant’s conduct in proceedings at the Board. The rental unit attached to any particular application is not relevant to the Tenant’s conduct and so it is not relevant to this motion.

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64. For reasons that follow, I am satisfied, on an objective standard, that the Tenant is a vexatious litigant.

Lack of merit

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Failure to pay costs

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Re-litigation or repetition of the same issues

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Rent receipts

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Allocation of a unit in the new buildings

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Illegal entries

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The Tenant has withdrawn several applications on the eve of hearing or at the hearing

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Volume

85. Since June 2015 the Tenant has filed at least eight applications against the Landlord at the Board and he has represented other tenants in at least six applications against the Landlord at the Board. In November and December 2015 there was a concentration of applications filed against the Landlord: the Tenant filed five applications on his own behalf during this time; other tenants of the Landlord (whom the Tenant represented) filed four applications during this time. This means that in this two month period, the Landlord was a respondent in nine applications in which the Tenant was involved.

86. The Tenant has requested at least three reviews of orders on his own behalf and has filed appeals to Divisional Court of at least two orders on his own behalf.

87. While the total number of applications in which the Tenant has been involved over the 16 month period between June 2015 and August 2016 might not be considered high volume, the concentration of these applications in November and December 2015 can reasonably be characterized as high volume.

Credibility findings

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The Tenant’s conduct in Board proceedings, considered globally

91. When considered individually, the different categories of conduct analyzed above may not, each on their own, give rise to a finding that the Tenant is a vexatious litigant. For example, the fact that there were two orders in which the Tenant was found not credible would not support such a finding. However, considering in conjunction the volume of applications in which the Tenant has been directly or indirectly involved, along with the number of withdrawn applications, the applications that lacked sufficient merit, the negative credibility findings, the failures to pay costs and the re-litigated issues, I am satisfied, on an objective standard, that the Tenant’s conduct in proceedings at the Board has been vexatious. The fact that the Tenant has filed or involved himself in so many proceedings against the Landlord (and not succeeded in any of them), coupled with the fact that the Tenant has committed several abuses of process and engaged in several kinds of vexatious behaviour, is what has led me to the conclusion that he is a vexatious litigant.