‘Uncooperative’ law prof must pay ex-girlfriend $20,000
Ontario courts unimpressed by conduct of University of New Brunswick academic
A University of New Brunswick law professor has lost his latest bid to avoid repaying a $20,000 loan to his former girlfriend.
In a recent decision, Ontario’s Divisional Court became the third branch of the province’s court system to side against Jason MacLean in the dispute, following earlier defeats at trial in the Small Claims Court, and then in the Superior Court, where a judge dismissed MacLean’s motion to extend the time to file a notice of appeal.
Dismissing MacLean’s motion to set aside the Superior Court ruling, the unanimous three-judge Divisional Court panel also became the third level of court to express concern about his litigation conduct.
“Mr. MacLean has delayed these proceedings before the Divisional Court, and he has also failed to act with the courtesy that is to be expected of a lawyer,” the decision reads. “This is part of a pattern of concerning behaviour. The motion judge described Mr. MacLean’s conduct at the Small Claims Court as a ‘failure of both courtesy and evidence.’ The trial judge found that ‘the defendant’s attempts to delay court proceedings and his absence at trial, in the face of a court order, egregious. The defendant is not a layperson, but a lawyer and a law school professor. I find his conduct with the Court indefensible’ (Transcript, p. 8). Given Mr. MacLean’s uncooperative behaviour and his status as a self-represented litigant, his consent to the form and content of a draft order will be dispensed with.”
According to the Divisional Court ruling, the case has its roots in February 2008, when MacLean borrowed $20,000 from Hannah Askew – his friend and former romantic partner – during a period of financial difficulty.
MacLean’s LinkedIn profile suggests he was clerking for then-Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps at the time Askew handed over the money – an inheritance from her grandfather, according to the ruling.
When Askew asked for repayment in the summer of 2010 to pay for her own tuition, the decision says MacLean promised to send a certified cheque, and then claimed it must have been lost in the mail when it did not arrive.
Askew’s patience wore out following an encounter at a conference in June 2015, when MacLean acknowledged the debt and promised to pay it back with interest, according to the Divisional Court ruling. The next month, she sent a formal demand letter, before launching a Small Claims Court action in November 2016, in Thunder Bay, Ont., where MacLean was living.
According to MacLean’s LinkedIn bio, he joined the brand new law faculty at the city’s Lakehead University in 2013, following several years on Bay Street with Osler Hoskin and Harcourt LLP.
A few days before the scheduled trial date in March 2019, the Divisional Court decision says MacLean brought a summary judgment motion to dismiss the action as statute-barred. However, a deputy judge dismissed the motion and the trial was rescheduled.
After declaring himself unavailable for the new trial date in July 2019, MacLean saw his request for an adjournment dismissed and the trial ultimately proceeded in his absence – by this time, his online biography says he had moved on to the University of Saskatchewan’s law school.
According to the Divisional Court ruling, the trial judge stuck MacLean’s defence and allowed Askew to prove her claim, ordering MacLean to pay her $20,000, plus pre-judgment interest at 2 per cent, punitive damages of $3,000, post-judgment interest and costs.
After missing the deadline to appeal the Small Claims judgment, MacLean moved for an extension of time to file his notice of appeal, but it was dismissed by a Superior Court judge who concluded that there was no merit to the proposed appeal.
At the Divisional Court, the panel noted that MacLean’s motion to set aside the Superior Court judge’s ruling was also brought out of time.
“His delay in bringing the motion to set aside in a timely manner is reason enough to dismiss the motion,” the panel wrote, but went on to endorse the motion judge’s findings anyway:
“We agree that there is no merit to the proposed appeal, and the motion judge properly exercised his discretion not to grant an extension of time to file the notice of appeal. Accordingly, the motion to set aside fails,” they added, ordering MacLean to pay $3,000 in costs.
MacLean did not respond to a request for comment.
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