THUNDER BAY — A judge has ruled that certain claims filed against Ontario Provincial Police and Thunder Bay police in a lawsuit by former Thunder Bay mayor Keith Hobbs and his wife Marisa will proceed.
The two police forces argued for the dismissal of claims against them in the Hobbses' lawsuit, including false arrest, negligent investigation and violations of Sections 7 and 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In his ruling on Monday, Justice Robert Centa allowed the negligent investigation claims to proceed, but dismissed the false arrest and Charter breach claims on the basis the statute of limitations had run out.
“The law is clear that a claim of false arrest is presumed to be discovered on the day of the arrest,” the judge wrote of his decision to dismiss those claims. “The plaintiffs did not rebut this statutory presumption and I find that they commenced their claim for this relief more than two years after they discovered the claim.”
That, however, doesn’t materially change the lawsuit, said Tamar Friedman, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs.
“My clients are very happy with the results,” she said. “They know that all the claims of false arrest and the associated charter breaches were dismissed due to being out of time and not on their merits.”
“The false arrest and the related charter breaches were alternative causes of action,” Friedman added. “But the conduct that they related to are exactly the same as the negligent investigation tort.”
The motion was argued in Dec. 2024.
The sprawling multi-million dollar lawsuit brought by the Hobbses and a third co-plaintiff against numerous individuals and parties arose from a nearly three year-long criminal case, in which they were charged with extortion. All three were acquitted in Feb. 2020 following a 15-day trial in November 2019.
Keith and Marisa Hobbs served notice of their combined $12.5 million suit in September 2020 alleging numerous claims against the police and others, including negligent investigation, malicious prosecution, defamation, harassment, intentional infliction of mental suffering, and more. The Hobbses' co-plaintiff — referred to in Centa’s decisions as M.V. due to a publication ban — filed their suit in 2022 with both actions being addressed together.
The judge ruled that the plaintiffs’ claims of negligent investigation were filed within the appropriate length of time, saying that, unlike the other claims, the clock on the negligent investigation claims started on the Feb. 2020 date of criminal acquittal, not the 2017 arrest date.
The judge also ruled that the claims of negligent investigation meet a significant enough threshold that hearing them over the course of a trial is warranted.
With this ruling on the police forces’ motion to dismiss completed, the lawsuit now moves into the evidence discovery phase, Friedman said, adding that is expected to start in May and last several weeks.
“This case is unique; it has a lot of defendants,” she said. “It'll take some time.”
Newswatch has requested comment from the OPP. A spokesperson for the Thunder Bay Police Service said that the force can't comment publicly at this time because it's an ongoing legal matter.
