The Garforthian side of the law

We were supposed to get Diana Ross.

And dancers and acrobats and an indoor rainforest.

We were promised a Mayan pyramid, a zipline, and an ice hotel.

But in the end, all we got was this six-page statement of claim, launching Philip Garforth's $60-million lawsuit against the City of Sault Ste. Marie and 17 other defendants.

The six pages quietly filed earlier this month with the Superior Court of Justice bear definite signs of the inimitable flair that Saultites have come to expect from all things Garforthian.

The document is lovingly hand-crafted, with the $60,000,000 in damages written out in pen with eloquent white space separating each zero, and scratch-outs decorating what's otherwise largely the standard boilerplate template for a statement of claim, complete with helpful instructions for filling it out.

There are few signs that the six pages of Garforth's claim were debased by involvement of competent legal counsel in its final preparation.

The developer, who gives his current address as Beeton, Ontario (just west of Bradford), begins by misspelling the name of his own company, Legacy Quest Developments.

He names the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation as a defendant, curiously providing as its address the location of the local genetic counselling clinic at 99 Forest Drive.

Also sued are local lawyer Joseph Bisceglia and all 12 of the City's ward councillors, even though the statement of claim presents no specific facts or individual legal grounds against any of them.

Three City employees are named as defendants: Chief Administrative Officer Joe Fratesi, City Solicitor Lorie Bottos and Assistant City Solicitor Nuala Kenny, whose name Garforth creatively spells as Nuaia.

Two years ago, Sault Ste. Marie City Council voted to terminate a downtown development deal with Garforth's Legacy Quest Developments Inc., citing what Nuala Kenny described as "material breaches of contract" by both the developer and the City's Economic Development Corp.

Garforth then struck a deal for a similar waterfront development with the Michigan Soo City Commission.

However, that project was placed on the back burner after the developer defaulted on a promise to deposit $1.9 million into an escrow account for his proposed purchase of the I-500 property.

The specifics of Garforth and Legacy Quest's claims against 18 defendants are laid out in just 102 remarkably succinct words, just under six words per defendant.

In two paragraphs that have yet to be tested in a court of law, he says the City didn't fulfil its contractural obligations, accusing municipal staff of conspiring to kill the Borealis deal. Further, he accuses unspecified City staff and associates of defaming him.

He is basing his claim for $60 million on "breach of contract, costs of damages, defamation of character, time and money spent on the project."

If Garforth gets everything that he's seeking, he'll end up with enough cash to build a $53 million megaproject like Borealis entirely on his own without outside financing, and still have $7 million left for pocket change.

As of 5 p.m. today, no statements of defence had been filed in the case.

City Solicitor Lorie Bottos told the Sault Star that he's not sure a statement of defence will be necessary to counter Garforth's breviloquent claim, suggesting that he may simply ask the court to throw it out.

Mayor John Rowswell is not being sued by Garforth.