Jewitt McLuckie is proud of Jeff Meleras who obtained an important victory for his client when faced with a motion to strike their lawsuit.
In Locke v Ontario Police Services et al, the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the defendants’ motion to strike the plaintiff’s statement of claim that alleges that, in 1999, the plaintiff reported sexual assaults that she had been subject to as a 12-year-old and that the police’s determination that she had consented to the sexual activity constituted malfeasance in public office. The defendants argued that the claim should be struck because it was launched too late and because the lawsuit did not set out facts that can support a claim of malfeasance of public office.
The Ontario Superior Court found that the plaintiff’s claim was not launched too late and that the plaintiff’s lawsuit was proper such that it can proceed. The Court further commented that the notion that the plaintiff could have consented to the sexual assault as a minor fell within the realm of misfeasance, and that to not lay a charge on this basis is a blatant disregard of the law of sexual assault and the Criminal Code.
