A collection of judgments of the Superior Court of Justice, primarily released after October 1, 2002, is posted on CanLII. The CanLII website is not an exhaustive source of judgments of the Superior Court of Justice. The official version of the reasons for judgment is the signed original or handwritten endorsement in the court file. In the event that there is a question about the content of a judgment, the original in the court file takes precedence.

Judgments are available in the language provided.

Copies of judgments of the Superior Court of Justice can be obtained by contacting the respective court administrative office where the matter was heard. A photocopy charge is payable. Judgments are also available on a number of subscription based services such as LexisNexis® Quicklaw^TM and WestlawNext® Canada.

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• Superior Court of Justice Recent Decisions
• Superior Court of Justice Divisional Court Recent Decisions

Superior Court of Justice Recent Decisions

• 2025-09-02 Lafrance v. McGill, 2025 ONSC 4982 (CanLII)
  Key Words: Family — Child custody — School attendance — Best interests of the child — Mother proposed school in Sturgeon Falls; father proposed school in Markstay — Factors considered included travel time, social connections, and student body composition — Court found school in Sturgeon Falls better served the child’s best interests — Divorce Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. 3 (2nd Supp.), s. 16
  Family — Parenting time — Modification of schedule — Child’s school attendance required changes to parenting time — Both parties agreed to a “three out of five weekends” schedule — Court approved schedule as it maximized time with the father — Order included clause requiring both parents to ensure homework completion for missed school days
  Family — Costs — Motion for school attendance and parenting time modification — Mother sought $2,000 in costs; father self-represented and did not seek costs — Court awarded $2,000 to the mother, finding the amount reasonable and proportionate to the issues raised
• 2025-09-02 Acorn Development v. Sabounchi, 2025 ONSC 5015 (CanLII)
  Key Words: Contracts — Settlement agreements — Essential terms — Mutual intention to create a legally binding contract — Whether the parties agreed on all essential terms of a settlement agreement, including payment schedule and collateral mortgage registration — Governing principles of contract law applied to settlement agreements — Court found mutual intention and agreement on essential terms — Olivieri v. Sherman, 2007 ONCA 491 applied
  Contracts — Breach of settlement agreement — Collateral mortgage registration — Whether failure to register a collateral mortgage constituted a breach of an essential term — Timing of performance of essential terms — Court held that timing of registration was not essential and defendants had not breached the agreement — Ju v. Tahmasebi, 2020 ONCA 383 applied
  Contracts — Enforcement of settlement agreements — Judicial discretion — Whether the court should enforce a settlement agreement where one party resisted enforcement — Settlements encouraged and enforced unless unconscionable, fraudulent, or based on misapprehension of material facts — Court exercised discretion to enforce the agreement — Lumsden v. Toronto Police Services Board, 2019 ONSC 5052 applied
  Civil procedure — Affidavits — Procedural irregularities — Whether an affidavit should be struck or given limited weight for non-compliance with r. 4.06(8) of the Rules of Civil Procedure — Court declined to strike affidavit, finding no evidence of misunderstanding or prejudice — Rules of Civil Procedure, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 194, rr. 1.04, 2.01, 2.03, 4.06(8) applied
  Civil procedure — Costs — Partial indemnity costs — Whether costs should be reduced due to the conduct of the parties — Court reduced costs award due to defendant’s conduct contributing to the motion — Costs fixed at $15,000 inclusive of H.S.T. and disbursements
• 2025-09-02 Di Turi v. Di Turi-Seemann, 2025 ONSC 5000 (CanLII)
  Key Words: Property — Joint tenancy — Purchase money resulting trust — Downpayment for property made by mother — Title held jointly by mother and son — Whether mother’s contribution to the purchase price was a gift or created a resulting trust — Presumption of resulting trust applied — Onus on son and daughter-in-law to rebut presumption — Evidence failed to establish intention to gift — Pecore v. Pecore applied
  Estates and trusts — Resulting trust — Presumption of advancement — Applicability to adult children — Mother contributed significant funds to purchase property — Whether presumption of advancement applied to adult son — Presumption of resulting trust found to apply — No evidence of intention to gift funds — Pecore v. Pecore and Nishi v. Rascal Trucking Ltd. considered
  Sale — Proceeds of sale — Distribution of proceeds — Property sold after breakdown of cohabitation — Mother entitled to return of initial contribution — Remaining proceeds to be divided equally among the three parties — Whether son and daughter-in-law benefitted financially from arrangement — Court found mother’s contribution was not a gift
  Civil procedure — Costs — Allocation of costs — Mother successful in claim for return of downpayment — Parties invited to make submissions on costs if unable to agree — Costs to be determined based on offers to settle and proportionality of success
• 2025-09-02 Kosewski v. Kosewski, 2025 ONSC 5017 (CanLII)
  Key Words: Family — Costs — Bad faith — Respondent engaged in bad faith throughout litigation, including false affidavits, financial misstatements, and breaches of court orders — Did the respondent’s bad faith warrant full recovery costs for the applicant? — Rule 24(10) of the Family Law Rules mandates full recovery costs for bad faith conduct
  Civil procedure — Costs — Proportionality and reasonableness — Applicant sought $255,249.22 in full recovery costs; court awarded $190,000 — How should proportionality and reasonableness guide the quantification of costs? — Costs must be fair, reasonable, and proportional to the issues litigated and the conduct of the parties
  Civil procedure — Costs — Offers to settle — Applicant made multiple severable offers; respondent made two offers closer to trial — What is the impact of settlement offers on costs awards? — Offers must be considered under Rule 24(12) of the Family Law Rules, but no elevated costs awarded unless offers are “beaten.”
  Family — Costs — Expert valuation fees — Respondent sought to revisit allocation of expert valuation costs decided at trial — Should the court reconsider the allocation of expert fees? — Court lacks jurisdiction to revisit trial findings on expert fees
  Civil procedure — Costs — Presumption of entitlement — Applicant was the more successful party overall, despite divided success on some issues — Should the successful party be awarded costs? — Rule 24(3) of the Family Law Rules presumes costs follow the result unless success is divided or unreasonable conduct is found
• 2025-08-29 R. v. M.T., 2025 ONSC 4944 (CanLII)
  Key Words: Criminal infractions — Sexual assault — Sexual interference — Invitation to sexual touching — Complainant alleged repeated sexual abuse by her father over several years — Accused denied all allegations — Whether the complainant’s testimony was sufficient to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt — Framework from R. v. W.(D.) applied to assess credibility and reliability of evidence — Accused found guilty on all counts
  Evidence — Credibility of complainant — Inconsistencies in testimony — Complainant’s evidence included variations in frequency and timing of alleged incidents — Whether inconsistencies undermined reliability of testimony — Court considered complainant’s age at the time of events and testimony — Inconsistencies found not to undermine credibility — Evidence accepted as reliable
  Evidence — Delayed disclosure — Complainant delayed reporting sexual abuse allegations to police — Explanation provided for delay, including fear and uncertainty about returning to live with the accused — Court accepted explanation and found delay did not affect credibility — Delayed disclosure not determinative of reliability
  Evidence — "Apology" message — Accused presented text message allegedly sent by complainant apologizing for her behavior — Complainant denied authoring the message — Court found complainant did write the message but determined it was unrelated to sexual abuse allegations — Message interpreted as addressing school-related conflicts — Denial by complainant not considered a deliberate falsehood
  Criminal procedure — Testimony of accused — Accused claimed work schedule left no opportunity for alleged abuse — Testimony included implausible claims of working 20–21 hours daily for years — Court found exaggerations were deliberate attempts to mislead — Accused’s evidence rejected as not credible

Superior Court of Justice Divisional Court Recent Decisions

• 2025-09-02 Lyons v. Lyons, 2025 ONSC 4890 (CanLII)
  Key Words: writing — motion — leave — dismissed — costs
• 2025-09-02 The Corporation of the City of Windsor v. Kingdom Construction Limited, 2025 ONSC 4891 (CanLII)
  Key Words: motion — promptly — leave — request — reserved
• 2025-09-02 Kamil v. Alnoor, 2025 ONSC 4995 (CanLII)
  Key Words: awarded — writing — motion — leave — dismissed
• 2025-08-29 Harvie Construction Inc. v. Atlas Dewatering Corporation, 2025 ONSC 4672 (CanLII)
  Key Words: Construction — Subcontractor claims — Extra work — Dispute over scope of subcontract — Whether subcontractor entitled to payment for additional services not covered by base contract price — Trial judge found subcontractor entitled to payment for extra work — Appeal dismissed — Construction Lien Act, RSO 1990, c. C.30
  Evidence — Business records — Admissibility — Hearsay — Whether trial judge erred in admitting subcontractor’s records as business records under the Evidence Act — Trial judge found records admissible and reliable based on totality of evidence — Evidence Act, RSO 1990, c. E.23, s. 35
  Contracts — Subcontractor claims — Inference of acceptance — Whether trial judge erred in inferring contractor accepted subcontractor’s claims for extra work by submitting them to owner — Trial judge’s inference upheld as reasonable based on specific circumstances of the case
  Civil procedure — Standard of review — Appellate review of trial judge’s findings — Correctness standard for questions of law — Palpable and overriding error for questions of fact — Deferential standard for mixed fact and law unless extricable legal error — Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65
• 2025-08-29 Adi Developments (Masonry the West) Inc. v. Tarion Warranty Corp., 2025 ONSC 4853 (CanLII)
  Key Words: Administrative law — Judicial review — Standard of review — Reasonableness — Judicial review of Tarion Warranty Corporation’s conciliation decision under the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act — Was Tarion’s decision unreasonable in its findings on statutory warranties and chargeability? — Standard of review for administrative decisions — Presumption of reasonableness under Vavilov framework
  Construction — Statutory warranties — Garage roof leakage — Builder’s repair obligations — Whether Tarion unreasonably found that garage roof items breached statutory warranties — Application of Ontario Building Code and CSA S413 standards — Use of CE-CP Guidelines in determining warranty breaches — Builder’s reliance on Sikacrete injections deemed insufficient — Reasonableness of Tarion’s findings on water penetration and chloride exposure
  Construction — Statutory warranties — Tenting of waterproofing membrane — Cosmetic versus structural defects — Whether Tarion unreasonably found that tenting of waterproofing membrane breached statutory warranties — Evidence of debonding and ponding — Application of workmanship and materials warranty — Relevance of manufacturer’s bulletin on bubbling — Reasonableness of Tarion’s findings
  Construction — Chargeability exceptions — Settlement offers — Whether Tarion unreasonably failed to consider chargeability exceptions for settlement offers — Application of Settlement Offer Chargeability Exception — Reasonableness of Tarion’s assessment of offer terms, timing, and amount — Requirement for offers to cover all warranted items
  Construction — Chargeability exceptions — Exposed exterior cladding — Whether Tarion unreasonably failed to consider chargeability exceptions for exposed detailing adjacent to roof terrace access ramp — Application of New Issue Chargeability Exception — Reasonableness of Tarion’s finding that the issue was an incomplete repair — Requirement for chargeability exceptions to apply to all warranted items