Deputy Mayor Sheldon Forgette, seen here earlier this year, is claiming that the North Bay Taxpayers' Association is not a legal entity and therefore cannot sue anyone or be sued. PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI
Deputy Mayor Sheldon Forgette is not defending his legal battle against the North Bay Taxpayers’ Association.
Instead, Forgette and his legal team say the Taxpayers’ Association can’t technically sue him to begin with.
The Taxpayers’ Association has filed a $90,000 lawsuit against Forgette for what they consider defamatory statements that the local politician made in March regarding the integrity, transparency and funding of the group.
“We’re not planning on defending the case at all; we’re planning on sending a motion to have it basically thrown out of court,” Forgette said after Monday night’s council meeting. “[The Taxpayers’ Association] are not a legal entity, so therefore they cannot sue or be sued, and we’ve got evidence to prove that.”
The comments in question implied that the Association collects donations in their personal bank account and that they lack transparency and accountability.
After filing their statement of claim, Association vice president Miles Peters said they were simply waiting for Forgette’s representatives to file their statement of defence.
But it sounds like that won’t be happening at all.
“We have a motion to basically get it scrapped out of court; you have to be a legal entity to sue, therefore my comments were exactly accurate,” Forgette added. “After it’s all done and dealt with, if it does get scrapped, then we have to go try and recoup the costs and make them pay for the legal fees because I don’t believe that the city should have to pay for that.”
Forgette’s legal representative, Birnie Law Firm, was hired by the city’s insurer as legal counsel for the Deputy Mayor to defend his case against the Taxpayers’ Association.
A letter from Forgette’s lawyer states that the “retainer is subject to the Municipal deductible of $50,000.”
“We’re waiting for them to amend the paperwork to put their own personal names on it,” said Forgette. “Once they do that, we’ll be able to go back to court and say ‘this was thrown out of court for these reasons, we would like the costs recovered.’”
“Counsel on behalf of the North Bay Taxpayers’ Association has indicated that it will be necessary to amend the Statement of Claim,” the letter reads. “The Association, through its’ [sic] Counsel, should be aware that no Statement of Defence will be served or filed until that amendment has been formally carried out by way of Court Order.”
Peters has previously said he personally approached Forgette on two occasions to retract his statements, but neither request was apparently acted on by the deputy mayor.
“I tried to avoid this entire situation by asking to talk to them in person and not through registered lawyers letters,” Forgette said on Monday. “I tried to talk to them face-to-face, so at the end of the day, they are forcing the insurance’s hand to cover this.
“We’ll probably have this all done before the end of August if everything goes right,” he added.
