Sure, I could just ignore it since Patrick is clearly uninterested in proceeding with it, and just wants to use it to brag, but I'm thinking that it would be worth it to file a motion that demands that Patrick either put up or shut up, so here's my thinking.
The obvious plan is to file a motion to have Patrick's stupid action dismissed as abandoned (as I did successfully with his ridiculous appeal of his 2014 Conditional Discharge Order). Now, it's admittedly unlikely that I would win that since the Court is typically accommodating of self-represented litigants, so it's not like I would be counting on that. But that's not the plan.
Even if a judge doesn't find that that action should be dismissed, it is entirely reasonable for a judge to order Patrick to get his shit together and give Patrick a strict timeline to move on this, including deadlines for questioning/discovery and so on, which I will request as the obvious alternative. And that should not be a hard ask for a judge to accommodate.
So, if I decide to charge ahead on this, I'm after someone in Alberta who can file such things for me so I can keep doing what I'm doing now, which is super-duper high-tech stuff. If you have the qualifications and can help out for not an obscene fee, drop me a note at canadiancynic@yahoo.ca and we can chat. Because I think I'm ready to crush this idiocy once and for all.
P.S. It's worth noting that I would not simply ask for a judge to order that Patrick either proceed with his action or drop it. No, I would insist on some conditions for Patrick to be allowed to move this forward.
First, given Patrick's history of refusing to obey court orders and to pay costs, I would insist that he put up significant security so that, if/when I win, I do not have to continue chasing Patrick for even more costs. I think $25,000 would be a reasonable amount. But it doesn't end there.
I would also absolutely insist that Patrick be ordered to pay off in full the money he owes me pursuant to my 2010 defamation judgment against (plus all interest) -- in the neighbourhood of $115,000. And I don't think that's an unreasonable request since it's going on 14 years since Patrick owed me a ton of money, and it's only fair that we clear the decks of all of that before embarking on yet another of Patrick's frivolous, vexatious and childish filings. So my motion will be to demand that, if Patrick really and truly thinks he has a meritorious lawsuit, he will have to front some $140,000 to move on it. And if he decides to bail, I will of course file for full discontinuance costs, putting him even further in debt to me.
So, if I proceed with my plan, we will see just how determined is Patrick Ross to see this through. In any event, if you're in a position to file these things for me, drop me a note and we can talk.
P.P.S. As I do not have substituted service for Patrick Ross for this action, I will have to arrange for a process server to hand-deliver the filing to him at his current employer; that expense will be added to the discontinuance costs I will be entitled to if Patrick withdraws this meritless lawsuit.
6 comments:
Somewhere on a windswept, frozen oilfield in the Northern Canadian prairies, an obese middle-aged man shivers in cold and fear, as he plans to order both onion rings and french fries with his $21 greaseburger tonight, to help ease the pain.
ROD: Part of my questioning of Patrick will include a full and notarized accounting of how he is funding his current lifestyle. He might want to start keeping receipts.
If Patrick hasn't done anything with his own lawsuit for over a year, why do you it's unlikely that you would win a motion to dismiss? How long does someone have to push along their own filing before a judge loses patience?
Anon @ 7:45 AM: There is no hard-and-fast rule for how long a court is willing to wait; cases are decided on an individual basis given the circumstances of each case. In Patrick's case, he would certainly get some mileage from whining about how he was distracted by the passing of his father.
However, I would have a compelling counter-argument by pointing out Patrick's history of refusing to obey court orders, refusing to pay costs and his previous dismissal for not moving his CDO appeal forward (especially the judge's ruling where the judge really took Patrick to task for clearly making stuff up).
I would also point out the utter lack of merit of Patrick's lawsuit, especially his asking for four million dollars despite not producing even the slightest evidence of harm or injury. And as a final nail in that coffin, I would produce numerous examples of Patrick's public bragging about suing me while doing nothing. That, by itself, I think would bury him.
Even with all that, I suspect the court would give Patrick a little more time, but he would be on a *very* short leash in terms of deadlines. And then there's the money he would have to front. Once you add that in, I doubt Patrick would have the nads to keep going with this. But, hey, Patrick has never been known to make smart decisions.
Does Canada have laws against vexatious litigants? Ross looks like a good candidate for an action.
It's possible that Patrick Ross could be argued to be a vexatious litigant, but it's unlikely to be worth the trouble to go down that road as I have way more than I need to crush him as it is: ridiculous lawsuit, outrageous amount, blatant misrepresentation, history of not obeying court orders, the amount of money he owes me, public bragging about how much he's enjoying this ... yeah, he's in enough trouble.
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