In Geneen v. The Corporation of the City of Toronto (O.M.B. File 9300002, Divisional Court 833/97), the Divisional Court heard an appeal by the claimants from a decision of the Ontario Municipal Board upholding refusals to answer questions by the expropriating authority. The appeal was from an interlocutory decision of the Ontario Municipal Board. The court quoted with approval the decision of the Divisional court in Re Kolbrich and the Minister of Housing (1978), 15 L.C.R. 14, in which it indicated that appeals from interlocutory orders of the Ontario Municipal Board should be discouraged. The Divisional Court was of the view that the section of the Expropriations Act providing for an appeal to the Divisional Court "from any decision or order of the Board" permitted an appeal only from a final order or decision of the board. With respect to interlocutory orders, Justice Southey indicated that appeals should be restricted to jurisdictional matters or to matters of great importance where the ruling of the Board is clearly wrong. The appeal by the claimant was dismissed and it was ordered to pay costs of $4,000.00 to the expropriating authority.

Paul R. Henry
This article appears in the OEA SPRING 1998 NEWSLETTER