[URBAN NOTE] "Mayor Ford loses bid to have Magder cover legal costs"

[rfmcdonald]

Global News' James Armstrong reports the news that Paul Magder--the man who brought Mayor Rob Ford up on conflict of interest charges--isn't liable for Ford's costs, on the grounds that the lawsuit was in the public interest.

In a decision issued Tuesday, a three judge panel decided that both Ford and Paul Magder – who brought the case against the mayor – would have to pay their own bills.

Ford had requested Magder pay approximately $115,000 in legal bills that Ford incurred during the court battle.

[. . .]

“First, success in the proceeding was divided,” the panel’s decision reads. “While the appellant succeeded on the appeal, he was unsuccessful on three of the four grounds he raised on appeal.”

In Ontario, litigants who bring cases to court that are in the public interest generally do not have to pay the costs should they lose the court battle.

Alan Lenczner – Ford’s lawyer – suggested in his submission for costs that the case was politically motivated and not in the public interest.

However, the court’s decision found that the legal battle “raised novel legal issues with respect to matters of public importance.”

The case provided also provided a “clarification” of the interaction between city rules and the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act as laid out by the province and thus, the panel of judges suggests, “is in the public interest.”