Simon's Legal Resources

Reasons - Lack of Justification

. Shahnematollah-Yazde v. Registrar, Motor Vehicle Dealers Act, 2002

In Shahnematollah-Yazde v. Registrar, Motor Vehicle Dealers Act, 2002 (Div Ct, 2026) the Divisional Court partially allowed an LAT MVDA salesperson and dealer registration appeal, this where the "Tribunal directed that the Registrar attach conditions to those registrations: an eight-month suspension and a remedial-course requirement for Hussein, and a two-year prohibition on lien registration and on out-of-province vehicle registration for Premium".

Here the court considers the inadequacy (almost, lack of 'justification') of reasons for a professional discipline penalty ruling:

(c) Penalty

[23] I agree with the appellants that the Decision does not adequately explain the sanctions imposed. Paragraphs 100 to 109 of the Decision address, in general terms, why conditions rather than revocation would adequately protect the public interest, but nowhere in the Decision does it explain why an eight-month suspension of Hussein's registration, as opposed to some shorter or longer period, follows from the misconduct found, nor why Premium should be barred for two years, across the whole of Canada, from registering any lien on any vehicle, when there is no finding that Premium filed, or was complicit in filing, a false lien. The lien at issue was filed in connection with the truck in which the Tribunal itself found the appellants held a legitimate financial interest; the Decision contains no finding that the lien itself, as opposed to the registration of ownership underlying it, was unlawful. Reasons of this generality do not permit meaningful appellate scrutiny of whether the specific sanctions chosen were a proportionate response to the specific misconduct found.