Meaford CAO Frank Miele has told The Independent that the recent ruling to award legal costs to the defendants in the Georgian Beach Road lawsuit will not have an impact on Meaford's appeal of the September 21 summary judgement in which Supreme Court Justice Daley dismissed Meaford's lawsuit.
“The process of this ruling will not affect the appeal. We will continue perfecting the appeal and submit it to the Court of Appeal by the end of January,” said Miele.
The CAO also said that he expects the appeal to be heard in the summer or early autumn, and a ruling on the appeal is likely to be made before the end of the year.
“The respondents will file their Facta, Compendia, and Case Books most likely by the end of February. The appeal will be heard in Toronto sometime in the summer or early fall. Anytime thereafter the Court of Appeal will release its decision two weeks to two months later,” said Miele.
On Wednesday it became known that a ruling for legal costs had been issued on Tuesday January 10 by Justice Daley. In that ruling Justice Daley ordered the Municipality of Meaford to pay $617,000 which is equal to 65 percent of the legal fees submitted by the various defendants in the case.
Prior to filing their appeal, the municipality had already spent in excess of $600,000 for their own legal fees in the lawsuit against some residents of Georgian Beach Road in their attempt to prove the existence of a public road that the municipality said was being blocked by some of the residents.
Justice Daley was not convinced that an 1854 bylaw that the municipality insisted provided proof of the road's existence, was sufficient proof and dismissed the case in a summary judgement issued on September 21 of 2011.
