Canada

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New Brunswick Court of King's Bench Justice Kathryn Gregory, who sided with a landlord in a case involving the way provincial tenancy officers have been phasing-in large rent increases for tenants, owns a five-unit apartment building in Fredericton, property records show.

Gregory ruled that decision was unfair to the landlord because the awarding of a phased-in rent increase is discretionary, not automatic, according to her interpretation of the legislation that created the policy.

No one has publicly questioned the substance of Gregory's decision or reasoning but legal experts say her ruling on an issue that her own apartment building could be subject to at some point is problematic.

Trevor Farrow, dean of law at Osgoode Hall in Toronto, said it is important for judges to be viewed by the public as having no personal interest or entanglement in any case they handle.

Beyond the propriety of owning an apartment building, Bryden, Farrow and Hughes all say it would have been important for Justice Gregory to disclose her status as a landlord to alert parties in the case to a potential conflict.

Richard Devlin, a professor at Dalhousie's Schulich School of Law, said it is not certain that Justice Gregory acted improperly by hearing and ruling on the issue of how the province regulates rent increases by landlords but it is not clear her conduct was free of trouble, either.

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