E. Admissions

• Author: Julien D. Payne - Marilyn A. Payne
• Pages: 543-543

Page 543

An agreed statement of facts is in the nature of a formal admission made for the purpose of dispensing with proof at the hearing. It is ordinarily a statement of facts agreed upon by the parties as true and correct that is submitted to the court for a ruling on the law that relates to it. It is usually conclusive as to the matters admitted, with other evidence being precluded. An agreed statement of facts is binding on the parties to it and can only be altered by mutual agreement or with leave of the court, usually only given on terms. One term should generally be that the other party should be at liberty to withdraw its agreement and that the costs of such withdrawal and the necessary fresh preparation should fall on the renouncer. The discretion of the court ought to be warily exercised, normally, to defeat fiction, to help establish truth, and to relieve clients of fatal mistakes by lawyers.⁴³The court should not permit withdrawals or amendments of admitted facts unless counsel can establish, through evidence, that such admitted facts are either false or are at least a triable issue.⁴⁴A defendant noted in default is deemed to admit all allegations of fact in the statement of claim; no similar provision is found in the Rules of the Ontario Court (Provincial Division) in Family Law Proceedings.⁴⁵

[43] Langton v. Langton (1987), 62 Sask. R. 107 (Q.B.).

[44] Lyons v. Lyons Estate (1989), 99 N.B.R. (2d)...