Simon's Legal Resources

Civil Litigation Dicta - Summary Judgment - Hryniak

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EDITING NOTE

Consider doing a Vavilov-style work up of this, it may have broad practice issues in it.

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. Hryniak v. Mauldin

In Hryniak v. Mauldin (SCC,2014) the Supreme Court of Canada heard an appeal emanating from the granting of summary judgment in a civil fraud case. The court took the oppourtunity to expound broadly on the criteria and procedure to be applied in summary judgment motions in light of the new principle of 'proportionality' recently introduced into Ontario's Rules of Civil Procedure by amendments to R20, and the standard of review to be applied in appeals of such orders. Essentially the Supreme Court - in what it described as a legal 'cultural shift' - put it's stamp of approval on the much broader use of summary judgment motions to assess evidence, determine credibility and reach reasonable inferences in such motions, thus condoning procedures much more akin to those of 'applications' rather than 'actions' for many cases.

The case is essential reading for anyone involved in a summary judgment motion: see esp. paras 1-7, 23-84.