Edited by Amanda Kostek
Last week’s Court Rulings from the Alberta Court of King’s Bench, Court of Appeal and SCC.
Stashin v Van Norman, 2026 ABKB 297
Test to set aside discontinuance
In Stashin v Van Norman, 2026 ABKB 297 the Court was asked to set aside a discontinuance. The Applicant argued that her medical situation at the time the discontinuance was given made it impossible to advance the action, but that the case had merit. The Court affirmed that the test for setting aside a discontinuance is high, and the party seeking to set aside must demonstrate special circumstances, which can include the absence of prejudice. In this case, the limitation has expired, and the defendants would be prejudiced by the setting aside of the discontinuance. As a result, the test was not met, and the Court declined to set the discontinuance aside. Importantly, the discontinuance did not arise out of a misunderstanding, slip or inadvertence. It was voluntarily entered into. The Court took the further step of ordering full indemnity solicitor and own client costs, on the basis that the Application was completely meritless, and the litigation history demonstrated “misuse of court processes with hopeless, unmeritorious, and duplicative actions.”