Summary
41344
Brian Thomas Goldie, et al. v. Municipality of the County of Kings
(Nova Scotia) (Civil) (By Leave)
Keywords
Access to information — Civil Procedure — Contempt of court — Order for production of documents — Applicants’ business operated out of airport that respondent municipality sought to relocate — Applicants requesting records from municipality related to decision to close airport, as applicants required to vacate leased premises on airport land — Municipality refusing request for records within statutory deadline, eventually disclosing thousands of pages of records — Whether lower courts erred in ruling municipality did not fail to disclose records requested and was not in contempt of court.
Summary
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The Goldies owned and operated an aircraft maintenance business out of the Kings County Municipal Airport. The airport land was owned by the respondent, the Municipality of the County of Kings, which decided to close and relocate the airport. The Goldies were required to vacate their leased premises.
The Goldies filed several access to information requests with the respondent, requesting records related to the decision to close the airport. The respondent failed to meet this statutory deadline and was deemed to have refused access to the requested records; eventually, the respondent disclosed thousands of pages of records.
The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia dismissed the contempt motion against the respondent, as the grounds were vague and for the most part were not connected to the terms of an order of the court. With one exception, the court determined the municipality did not withhold records. The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal found no errors of fact or law in the lower court’s decision and dismissed the appeal.
Lower Court Rulings
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