Law Times

Page 16 February 10, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com NEW SUPERIOR COURT JUDGES APPOINTED Justice Minister Peter MacKay has ap- pointed four judges to the Ontario Su- perior Court of Justice. Among the new appointees is Justice Kelly Wright, previously an Ontario Court of Justice judge in Toronto. She replaces Justice Michael Brown in Newmarket, Ont. Brown moves to Toronto to replace Justice Katherine Swinton, who became a supernumer- ary judge in November. Another new judge is Frederick Myers of Goodmans LLP. Myers had been a partner at Goodmans since 2003 and before that practised insolvency law and litigation at Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. He replaces Justice Mary Lou Benotto, who joined the Ontario Court of Appeal in November. In addition, Miller omson LLP insolvency and litigation lawyer Alissa Mitchell will sit in London, Ont. She replaces Justice Alan Bryant, who became a supernumerary judge in November. Finally, Vice Hunter Labrosse LLP's Marc Labrosse will sit in Ottawa. He replaces Justice Peter Annis, who joined the Federal Court last year. AN IDIOTIC IP DISPUTE? NEW YORK — A few letters or a small detail can make a big difference in intellectual property matters, even when they involve mere idiocy. According to Reuters, organizers of the Idi- tarod, a gruelling sled dog race across Alaska, wanted to make sure no one confuses the event with the Idiotarod, a pointedly sillier affair due to take place last month with costumed partici- pants racing modified shopping carts through New York City. e organizers of the Alaska race, however, took no chances. According to Reuters, they got their lawyer to send a cease-and-desist letter to the organizers of the Idiotarod. e letter, which Idiotarod organizers shared on their Facebook page, says the New York race, with its "slight variation" in name, was breaching the Iditarod Trail Committee's trademark rights and said Idiotarod organizers risked a lawsuit to seek damages. Jon Dawson, the Iditarod committee's lawyer, wrote that the Idiotarod organizers were causing the public to associate the name "with an event that celebrates wacky costumes and antics over one that honours the endurance and athleticism of champion sled dogs and the courage and skill of the men and women that run them." Idiotarod organizers called the letter frivo- lous and said its 10th anniversary race, described on its web site as an "urban spoof " of the Alaskan race, would proceed virtually as planned. In an act of what they called appeasement, however, they said they would rename their race the Idiotarodorama (a.k.a. the Desistarod). Still, they insisted that "no one in their right mind" could confuse the two events. DEADLY BATTLE OVER POETRY VS. PROSE IRBIT, Russia — Some people take their literary views very seriously, a stabbing death in Russia has shown. A former teacher killed his friend aer a drunken argument over whether poetry or prose is superior, investigators in the Sverdlovsk region said. "e literary dispute soon grew into a banal conflict, on the basis of which the 53-year-old admirer of poetry killed his opponent with the help of a knife," the regional branch of the federal investigative committee said in a statement. e suspect fled his home in the town of Irbit, where the 67-year-old victim was killed aer the argument on Jan. 20, and hid at another friend's house in a nearby village before he was found and detained, it said. According to Reuters, the killing came four months aer an argument over the theories of 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant ended in a man being shot in a grocery store in southern Russia. ROCK CASE ENSNARES UNLIKELY DEFENDANTS SALT LAKE CITY — It appears two former Boy Scout leaders may have forgotten the lesson about doing the right thing. According to Reuters, the unlikely defen- dants who sparked worldwide outrage by top- pling a 170-million-year-old rock formation at a Utah state park last year are now facing charges of felony criminal mischief. A video of the incident posted on YouTube in October showed Glenn Taylor dislodging a massive boulder from its spindly rock pedestal in Goblin Valley State Park as fellow scout leader Da- vid Hall filmed him while laughing and singing. Taylor, 45, is charged with felony criminal mis- chief and Hall, 42, faces one count of felony aid- ing and assisting in criminal mischief, director of Utah state parks Fred Hayes said in a statement. e men lost their leadership positions with the Boy Scouts of America aer the video sur- faced. Taylor and Hall told park officials last year that the boulder was a safety hazard they rem- edied by knocking down. LT THE MOST COMPLETE DIRECTORY OF ONTARIO LAWYERS, LAW FIRMS, JUDGES AND COURTS More detail and a wider scope of legal contact information for Ontario than any other source: ȕ0WFS27,000 lawyers listed ȕ0WFS9,000 law firms and corporate offices listed ȕ'BYBOEUFMFQIPOFOVNCFSTFNBJMBEESFTTFTPGȮDFMPDBUJPOTBOEQPTUBMDPEFT Visit carswell.com or call 1.800.387.5164 for a 30-day no-risk evaluation 1FSGFDUCPVOEȕ1VCMJTIFE%FDFNCFSFBDIZFBSPOTVCTDSJQUJPOȕ0OFUJNFQVSDIBTF- .VMUJQMFDPQZEJTDPVOUTBWBJMBCMF 1SJDFTTVCKFDUUPDIBOHFXJUIPVUOPUJDFUPBQQMJDBCMFUBYFTBOETIJQQJOHIBOEMJOH O N TA R I O L AW Y E R' S P H O N E B O O K Untitled-5 1 14-01-31 12:31 PM u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story LAWYER'S COST APPEAL ALLOWED IN PART Vaughan, Ont., lawyer Ken- neth James, who faces money- laundering charges, was partly successful in his appeal of a $180,000 cost order against him following a Law Society of Up- per Canada hearing. James' disciplinary hearing came to a halt in 2012 aer an "ex- traordinarily long and costly 23 days" of proceedings. Alan Gold, chairman of the panel hearing the case, recused himself because it turned out he and James shared a client, a situation that led him to receive "privileged information" regarding James. On appeal, James said argued it wasn't his fault the hearing panel had failed to ensure none of the panel members were in conflict. e appeal panel al- lowed his appeal in part and ordered the law society to pay $12,270 in costs to James. Meanwhile, former teacher James Melnick, who got the green light to practise law in On- tario aer the law society consid- ered his past conviction on two charges involving sexual offences with a minor, won't get costs in his successful appeal to the law soci- ety's appeal panel. At first, a hearing panel rejected Melnick's bid to practise law fol- lowing a good character hearing. But in a decision dated July 29, a law society appeal panel granted Melnick a licence to practise law aer finding he was now of good character. Although his appeal was successful, the appeal panel dis- missed Melnick's request for costs on Jan. 23. COURT UPHOLDS LAWYER'S DISBARMENT e Divisional Court has reject- ed former lawyer Leslie Vandor's appeal of his disbarment. Vandor, an Ottawa lawyer disbarred for misconduct that included misappropriations of significant funds from his family's company and from clients, sought to set aside a Law Society of Up- per Canada appeal panel order upholding his disbarment. He argued the appeal panel erred in failing to apply a Superior Court order related to his discharge from bankruptcy and in upholding the hearing panel's ruling that there was a failure to account for proper disbursements and expenditures. Among other things, he argued the court absolved him of any wrongdoing at his bankruptcy dis- charge hearing. But in its decision on Jan. 27, the Divisional Court noted there was no hearing on the merits of the claim of misappro- priation of funds and that the pur- pose of the bankruptcy proceed- ings wasn't to assign blame. Vandor also argued there was ev- idence before the hearing panel that some of the misappropriated funds in fact went towards buying a condo for his mother and paying other family expenses. e Divisional Court, however, found the hearing panel "rendered a comprehensive, well-reasoned decision." LT Sure, you could sue. But the court may find contributory negligence on your part: living in Canada." Frederick Myers

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