The Case of the Haunted Labor Hall

The Case of the Haunted Labour Hall

KITCHENER, Ontario – The case of the "haunted" labor hall has finally been laid to rest by the highest court in Ontario.

Trajan Fisca hoped to get $1 million in compensation because nobody told him a three-story building in downtown Kitchener had ghosts before he bought it in 2010. But after launching a lawsuit on that basis and getting short shrift from a local judge, Fisca didn't fare any better when he took his complaint to the Ontario Court of Appeal. In a one-page ruling in April 2014, a three-judge panel dismissed his bid for a trial to show how the building is "stigmatized" and therefore worth much less than he paid. The panel noted there is no direct evidence of financial loss or testimony from anyone "who observed any strange occurrences in the property."

 
Fisca purchased the historic building (above) at 137-147 King Street, East, which was constructed in 1922, from the K-W Labour Association for $650,000. Shortly after closing, the Waterloo Region Record, a local newspaper, quoted Stephen Kramer, a director of the seller corporation, commenting on the property: “It’s haunted. I have heard this from a couple of people – up on the third floor, there is an office up there and they said some days you see somebody moving around inside of there and there is nobody there,” he said. “We used to make jokes that Jimmy Hoffa was in the basement . . . It’s a labyrinth in there.”

Based solely on this article, the new owner sued the seller for concealing, or failing to disclose to the buyer, the existence of a hidden defect in the property: the existence of a death and/or murder with the implication there were ghosts.

The former owner applied to the court for an order dismissing the claim. In evidence filed at the hearing, Kramer said he had never seen a ghost, did not believe there was a ghost and that conversations about the property being haunted were a joke. When asked if the people who told him the property was haunted were joking, he testified: “Oh yeah ... it was at a social function kind of thing, had a few beers and talking about the ghost up the stairs – ha ha ha, that sort of thing.”

In the fall of 2013, Justice James Sloan ruled there wasn't enough substance to the case – which named the association and two real estate agents as defendants – to go to trial. "In essence what we have is a double hearsay rumor about a ghost from a couple of people after they had consumed a few beers at a social function," he wrote.
Not only did the appellate court affirm Sloan's ruling, Fisca was ordered to pay more than $6,000 in legal costs.

Nevertheless, the Real Estate Council of Ontario requires agents to disclose the existence of stigma to potential purchasers so they can be treated “fairly, honestly and with integrity.” But if the agent is not informed about a property’s stigma, there is clearly no obligation to disclose. And even without a disclosure obligation, there are risks of keeping silent about a stigma.

Sources: Brian Caldwell, The Hamilton Spectator; Bob Aaron, The Toronto Star, and Peter Lee, The Waterloo Region Record.