Docket: CACV2304 Todd Noland Millions Appellant - v. -, 2012 SKCA 97

THE COURT OF APPEAL FOR SASKATCHEWAN Citation: 2012 SKCA 97 Date: 2012-10-24 Between: Docket: CACV2304 Todd Noland Millions Appellant - and - Alane Joan Millions Respondent Before: Cameron J.A. in Chambers Counsel: Appellant in person Tyler A. McCuaig for the respondent (by telephone) Application:

Heard: October 24, 2012 Disposition: Dismissed (orally) Written Reasons: October 25, 2012 By: The Honourable Mr. Justice Cameron Cameron J.A. [ 1 ] This is an appeal from an order made by Mr. Justice Keene in which he granted a writ of possession in effect ousting the appellant from living on a ranch located near Eastend and owned by the respondent. The appeal was brought pursuant to ss. 55 and 56 of The Landlord and Tenant Act , R.S.S. 1978, c. L-6. [ 2 ] The appellant and the respondent are brother and sister.

She inherited the ranch from their mother and allowed the appellant to continue to live there as a tenant at will, so to speak, or as a squatter as he put it. In time she decided to sell the ranch and asked the appellant to move off the property. He refused to do so, and in consequence she applied for a writ of possession. [ 3 ] On being served with notice of the proceedings, including his sister’s affidavit in support of her application, he wrote to the Court of Queen’s Bench in Swift Current suggesting the proceedings be transferred to Shaunavon.

Nothing came of that, and when the application came on for hearing in Swift Current he was not present, either in person, or by counsel, or by telephone. Nor had he filed an affidavit in response to that of his sister’s, whose affidavit on the face of it clearly provided the factual basis for the grant of a writ of possession. In the result, Justice Keene allowed her application and ordered the issue of the writ.

The appellant then brought this appeal. [ 4 ] As I explained during the course of argument, there is no basis in the record of the proceedings in the Court of Queen’s Bench upon which I might allow the appeal. Based on the record, Justice Keene cannot be seen to have made any error of law or fact. And no fatal procedural irregularity occurred.

The appellant thought otherwise, pointing, first, to what he said were some additional background facts that might have made a difference and, second, to his letter to the Court of Queen’s Bench suggesting the proceedings be transferred from Swift Current to Shaunavon. [ 5 ] Aside from the fact I do not have before me an application to adduce fresh evidence, I might say I can see nothing in the background referred to by the appellant to give me pause in the sense a miscarriage of justice may have occurred here by reason of the appellant’s personal situation or unfamiliarity with legal proceedings.

Nor can I see anything of concern arising out of his letter suggesting the proceedings be transferred to Shaunavon. Shaunavon has long ceased to be a judicial centre as such, the Court of Queen’s Bench does not sit there, and Swift Current is the judicial centre nearest Eastend. [ 6 ] In the circumstances, and for these reasons, I have decided to dismiss the appeal. I make no order for costs, for no such order was sought. Dated this 25 th day of October 2012. “Cameron J.A.” Cameron J.A.