Law Times

Page 16 December 8, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com SIDNEY LINDEN AWARD GOES TO BILL SULLIVAN Family lawyer Bill Sullivan has re- ceived Legal Aid Ontario's Sidney B. Linden award for his service to clients living in poverty. Sullivan received the award on Dec. 4. LAO board chairman John McCa- mus said Sullivan has devoted much of his career to representing society's poorest. "He is widely respected for his skill- ful advocacy, his compassion and hu- manity, and his generosity in mentoring many junior members of the family law bar," said McCamus. Sullivan's commitment to legal aid started during his time at the Dalhousie University Faculty of Law, where he worked at the school's legal clinic. After graduating, he articled at Toronto's Park- dale Community Legal Services. He then started a sole practice focusing on immigration, family law, and representing women who have experienced domestic violence. NAKED MAN CHARGED WITH MAYHEM BOSTON — It's not often that you hear about a charge of mayhem. But according to the Boston Globe, that's one of the charges a 26-year-old man is facing after he crashed naked through a bathroom ceiling at Boston's Logan International Airport. On Nov. 22, a woman using the bathroom reported the naked man fell through the ceil- ing in the stall area and then f led, the Globe reported. Upon coming across an 84-year-old man, he bit him on the ear and tried to choke him with his cane, according to police. According to the Globe, police have charged Cameron Shenk with mayhem, attempted murder, assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and malicious destruction of property. WOMAN WHO LET SPOUSE'S BODY ROT PLEADS GUILTY HAMILTON, Ont. — It's not often we get high-profile local legal oddities. But the case of a Hamilton woman who let her husband's body rot for six months while the family prayed for his resurrection certainly counts as an odd one. According to the Hamilton Spectator, Kaling Wald pleaded guilty last week to failing to no- tify police or the coroner that her husband had died. She pleaded guilty to the charge under the Coroners Act after authorities withdrew criminal charges of neglect of duty regarding a dead body and offering an indignity to a body. According to the agreed statement of facts, the husband, Peter Wald, probably died in late March 2013. He had refused to go to the hospital despite an infection in his left foot and believed God would cure him, the Spectator reported. After he went into a coma and his condition worsened leading up to his death, his wife left him in an upstairs bedroom and padlocked the door. "We were trusting God. . . . We thought, 'OK Lord, you know better,'" the Spectator quot- ed Wald as saying after court last week. After sealing the door and the vents to ward off the smell, the family continued praying as they awaited the dead man's return, accord- ing to the Spectator. But things came to an end when a sheriff showed up to evict the family for defaulting on the mortgage. "It's an extremely sad case. . . . She truly be- lieved her husband was going to be resurrected from the dead even after six months," the Spec- tator reported assistant Crown attorney Janet Booy as saying. Wald received a suspended sentence, 18 months of probation, and an order to seek counselling. "This is not about your religious beliefs. It is about your safety, the safety of your children, and the safety of the community at large," said Superior Court Justice Marjoh Agro. The family has since moved to Fort Erie, Ont., and Wald says she won't do it again, ac- cording to the Spectator. A MANAGING PARTNER'S WARM HOLIDAY WISHES SEATTLE — Just in time for the holidays, a managing partner has politely reminded as- sociates to enter their time or face losing their jobs. "Anyone who has more than a week of time not in by close of business Monday will be dis- missed from the firm Tuesday am," according to a memo obtained and quoted by Above the Law from Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP managing partner Steve Berman. The memo went out at 12:32 p.m. on the day before Thanksgiving. Apparently, the firm doesn't mess around when it comes to tracking time even with one of the year's biggest holidays just around the corner. LT The title insurer that puts you front row, centre Putting the legal community front and centre has made us the #1 choice with Canadian lawyers for over a decade. Stewart Title does not support programs that reduce or eliminate the lawyer's role in real estate transactions. For more information call (888) 667-5151 or visit www.stewart.ca. Untitled-2 1 7/19/11 12:31:45 PM u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story BANK PREVAILS IN BAD-CHEQUE CASE The Ontario Court of Appeal has cleared a bank of liability in relation to a bad-cheque scam that duped two lawyers. Lawyers Junaid Kayani and Jack Zwicker separately depos- ited counterfeit certified cheques into their respective trust ac- counts and followed a fake client's instruction to issue trust cheques payable to Nithiyakalyaani Jewellers, a sham company ap- propriating the name and address of a corporation that had previ- ously carried on business under the name of Nithiyakalyaani Jewellers Ltd. After finding out about the fraud, the lawyers sued the To- ronto-Dominion Bank for neg- ligence and conversion. While the trial judge had ruled in favour of the lawyers, the Court of Appeal disagreed in its Dec. 3 ruling. Whether the bank was liable hinged on whether the payee had been a fictitious or non-existent party all along. "The focus of the trial judge's analysis was whether the bank could avail itself of the defence in s. 20(5) of the Bills of Exchange Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. B-4, (the 'act') which provides that 'where the payee is a fictitious or non-existing person, the bill may be treated as payable to the bearer,'" wrote Justice Wil- liam Hourigan in Kayani LLP v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank. "The trial judge found that the payee was not fictitious as both Mr. Zwicker and Kayani made their instruments payable to Nithiyakalyaani Jewellers, which they believed was an existing entity, and which was an exist- ing entity at the time the instru- ments were negotiated," Hou- rigan continued. But the Court of Appeal found that conclusion didn't make sense since the lawyers weren't aware of Nithiyakalyaani Jewellers Ltd.'s existence until they found out Nithiyakalyaani Jewellers was a fake company. The appeal court concluded the payee was non- existent and the bank wasn't liable. "The payee is not the name of any real person known to the respon- dents at the time they drew the in- struments," wrote Hourigan. "The payee is, therefore, non-existing." POLL RESULTS The results of the latest Law Times online poll are in. According to the poll, the ma- jority of respondents say they don't believe the Ontario attorney gen- eral's new Better Justice Together effort will make a difference. The attorney general intro- duced the new program last month to promote court effi- ciency, support individuals with mental illness when they come into contact with the criminal justice system, make it easier for family law litigants to use me- diation, and create an integrated system that "allows justice part- ners and participants to better share and access the information they need." But 58 per cent of poll re- spondents felt the program was " just more rhetoric" while the rest said the program was a sign that the current minister is ready to deliver on improvements to the justice system. LT "OK, Melissa, Santa promises to consult his elves as to whether the costs incumbent on a new pony could be factored into a shared expenses arrangement in addition to or in lieu of the standard child support guidelines." Bill Sullivan

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