Editors Sandbox

Cope v Gesualdi, 2021 CanLII 58972 (ON SCSM)

[1] The parties in this case have not specifically pleaded the legal description all of their claims or particular defences in writing but have each set out their own version of the facts. Accordingly, Rules 7.01(2) and 9.02(1) have not been entirely satisfied, even though the legal nature of all the claims and defences are not always explicitly stated. This court will consider the causes of action and defences advanced orally by the parties when they were invited to open their respective cases. I have no difficulty with this except that it prolongs judicial consideration of the case. Superior Court Rule 25.06, after all, requires no more than that that the parties plead pertinent facts and allows them, but does not make it mandatory, to plead exact points of law. A cause of action need not be pleaded if the specific facts giving rise to that cause of action are included in the pleading: 677960 Alberta Ltd. v Petrokazakhstan Inc., 2013 ABQB 47 at para. 53. In this instance, I find that the causes of action are clearly identifiable from the facts pleaded and have been supported in testimony by facts which are material: Cerqueira v. Ontario 2010 ONSC 3954 at para. 11 and see further J.W. Morden and P.M. Perell, The Law of Civil Procedure in Ontario (1st ed.) (Markham: NexisLexis Canada Inc., 2010) at 339-45. In any event Small Claims Court pleadings are to be read generously: Chovaz et. al. v. 7120761 Canada Inc. et al, 2020 ONSC 1811 at para. 25 (“In Small Claims Court, a liberal, non-technical approach should be taken to pleadings”).