Month: June 2009

Macleans reported, "Student sues Carleton for broken nose". A former Carleton student who was assaulted while in his dorm by two other students has now commenced a personal injury action against the university.

The assault took place in 2003 and the Plaintiff is now 24 years old and missed the two year limitation to commence his action. His lawyer argues it was due to the fact that the true nature and consequences of the assault could not be appreciated by the Plaintiff. It is foreseeable that the Defendant, university will be looking to bring a summary judgment motion to dismiss the claim due to the limitation issue.

Critics of the lawsuit have and will argue, what more could Carlton have done? Well, without the commencement of the lawsuit nobody really knows what it is that Carlton has already done.

The fact that the Plaintiff is working as a security guard and likely alleges to have sustained psychological trauma should be interesting.

Jamal Estate v. Scarborough Hospital - Grace Division [2009] O.J. No. 1822 was decided May 2009 by the Ontario Court of Appeal. Here the Plaintiff, the Estate of Jamal commenced a legal action against a number of organizations as a result of Jamal's death due to SARS. Specifically, the province of Ontario was a named Defendant. It was alleged that Ontario failed to satisfy its duty of care to Jamal.

The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the claim against Ontario and held that, Ontario did not owe Jamal a private care of duty. In coming to its decision the court relied on other similar cases such as, Eliopoulos v. Ontario (Minister of Health & Long-Term Care) [2006] O.J. No. 4400. See also, Williams v. Ontario.