2016 March 29

Simaei v. Hannaford, 2016 ONSC 2046

The Ontario Superior Court rejected an application by a plaintiff to consolidate her libel action with her wrongful dismissal action. The libel claim complained about statements made by the defendant’s lawyers concerning the wrongful dismissal lawsuit to a reporter for the Law Times. The lawyer-defendants alleged the statements were taken out of context and otherwise misrepresented by the Law Times. The Law Times story appeared in both its print and online editions. The Court ordered that after disclosure of documents in the libel action the action would be stayed pending further order of the Court. Among other things, the Court noted a concern that consolidating the two lawsuits might lead to the disqualification of defence counsel from acting in the wrongful dismissal action. The Court also concluded that the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate that the two actions had similar enough factual issues to warrant consolidation.