Simon's Megalomaniacal Legal Resources

Appeals - Court of Appeal - Five or More-Judge Panels

. Paul’s Transport Inc. v. Immediate Logistics Limited

In Paul’s Transport Inc. v. Immediate Logistics Limited (Ont CA, 2022) the Court of Appeal heard an appeal with five judges where the validity of a precedent was being challenged. Under CJA 7(1) the Court of Appeal can sit as "not fewer than three judges sitting together, and always by an uneven number of judges". The court normally sits as three but there are no Rules (in the RCP) respecting when more than three are required:

[43] Before the appeal was scheduled to be heard, the appellants successfully asked that a five-judge panel be struck so that the court hearing the appeal could reconsider Umlauf. The appellants made their Umlauf arguments as part of their submission that the Motion Judge erred by failing to apply the correct legal test when determining whether to set aside the October 2020 Default Judgment. Accordingly, the Umlauf arguments are addressed on Issue #2, below.