Introduction
This Divisional Court decision involves a successful motion to strike a parent’s claim against a school board for failing to disclose a reasonable cause of action and for being an abuse of process and vexatious under Rule 21.01.[1]
The claim involved complaints by the plaintiff mother about her interactions with staff over requests for her son’s school documents and access to her son while he was at school between 2018 and 2020. She claimed staff failed to provide information or failed to respond to her requests in a timely fashion about her son’s schoolwork and documents, as well as his absences and suspensions.[2] During that period, the plaintiff was involved in a custody dispute with her estranged husband. There was a joint custody order in effect, though court records indicated there was a breakdown in her relationship with her son as he refused to see her. Subsequently, in March 2020, the father was awarded sole custody of the son.[3]
The plaintiff named two school boards and a number of employees as defendants. She claimed psychological damage as a result of the defendants’ actions. The son was not a plaintiff in the action and no damages were claimed on his behalf.
In support of her claim, the plaintiff pled and relied on the joint custody order that was in effect between 2018 and 2020. That order granted her final decision-making authority with respect to her son’s education. She alleged that the defendants were aware of the custody order yet failed to sufficiently respond to her various requests about her son. She did not specify in her claim how the custody order obligated the defendants to act differently.[4] She claimed the defendants committed the intentional torts of misfeasance of public office and intentional infliction of mental suffering, and that they breached her section 7 rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.
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