Supreme Court
Decision Information
Summary: Applicant seeks court order for sale of land to pay off municipal taxes due and bank's outstanding mortgage. Defendant alleges bias on part of judge hearing matter on three grounds: the judge is not adhering to the Interest Act, the judge is allowing the proposed judgment be tacked on to the present plaintiff's mortgage thus leap-frogging over other interests, the judge is granting costs to the bank's counsel when the bank has requested adjournments. The defendant wanted the matter of bias to be referred to the Canadian Judicial Counsel, however the court pointed out that the Counsel only dealt with matters of misconduct and that it was proper for the matters the defendant was alleging bias in be dealt with before the present court. In response to the first allegation the court asked the plaintiff's counsel to prepare a memorandum on whether the Interest Act is applicable to mortgages. In response to the second allegation, the court and bank's counsel explained to the defendant that the present plaintiff bank paid off a previous mortgage the defendant had and that gave the appearance of the new mortgage amount being in excess of the present bank's mortgage. In response to the third allegation the court requested more specific information from the defendant be presented to the court in affidavit form so the court could compare the circumstances under which the plaintiff blank was awarded costs to the cost obligations outlined in the mortgage
Decision: Matter set over for 2 weeks during which time the parties are to prepare the additional information the court requested
Subjects: Mortgages - Judicial sale - Order for sale
Mortgages - Payment of mortgage - Amount owing
Costs - Parties entitled to or liable for costs
Judges and courts - Disqualification of judges - Bias