Kheriji v. 14939201 Ontario Limited et al, 2015 ONSC 5196
Released September 4, 2015 | CanLII
This was a motion by the defendant, 14939201 Ontario Limited, to dismiss the plaintiff’s action against it for failure to issue within the limitation period and for summary judgment on the basis that the defendant did not owe a duty of care to the plaintiff. The plaintiff’s action arose from an assault at the Ministry nightclub. The defendant was the owner of the premises, but denied knowledge of the existence of any after-hours nightclub on the premises. The incident occurred on July 5, 2009. The plaintiff issued a Notice of Action on October 7, 2013. The plaintiff admitted that he knew he had been assaulted on the night of the incident and began making efforts as early as December 2009 to identify the defendant. Justice Dow concluded that the plaintiff knew well before October 7, 2011 that he had the cause of action eventually pleaded against the defendant in October 2013. Accordingly, Justice Dow was prepared to dismiss the motion on that basis. Notwithstanding Justice Dow’s conclusion regarding the limitation period issue, he opted to consider the defendant’s submission that it owed no duty of care to the plaintiff. Justice Dow reviewed several decisions and concluded that in the absence of evidence that a landlord defendant is aware of the illegal activity on its premises by its tenant, the landlord owes no duty of care to patrons of the tenant. Consequently, he concluded that the defendant was entitled to succeed on that argument as well.