A defendant’s application for an order staying the execution of a wrongful dismissal judgment while it appealed was dismissed because the defendant did not have the funds available to secure the judgment.
After trial, the defendant had been ordered to pay $48,305 in damages plus $11,000 in costs. The defendant appealed against the wrongful dismissal judgment and applied for a stay of execution.
In deciding whether to grant the stay, Mr. Justice Goepel noted that a stay of execution would ordinarily be granted in the circumstances:
[4] A stay of execution is generally granted on terms which secure the judgment so that the respondent is in a position to readily obtain the fruits of its judgment if it is successful in this Court.
However, the defendant acknowledged that it did not “have the funds to pay or otherwise secure the judgment.” In those circumstances, a stay of execution may have unfairly prevented the plaintiff from taking steps to secure execution:
[5] Given the apparent financial fragility of the appellant, it would not be fair to the respondent to prevent her from taking whatever steps are open to her to execute on the judgment.
The application for a stay of execution was denied.