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Justice Joseph Quinn of the Ontario Superior Court seems to enjoy his job.

We’ve come to rely on Justice Quinn to entertain us with some of the funniest court decisions you’ll find anywhere. It falls to practitioners to determine whether any of these inform the profession on new or innovative ways to interpret and apply the law. But who cares, because sometimes you just want the laugh.

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The latest opus to emerge from Justice Quinn is a case from St. Catharines, Ont. called Hearing Clinic (Niagara Falls) Inc. v. 866073 Ontario Ltd. The trial, a dispute over the purchase of three hearing aid clinics, was originally expected to last three weeks. It wound up taking 72 days of court time spread over three years.

In the end, the plaintiff was unsuccessful with a fraudulent misrepresentation claim, but did prove five breaches of contract. The judge awarded the plaintiff the grand total of $423.20 for those breaches — a decent outcome after, say, a 10-minute segment on Judge Judy, but doubtless a painful result following seven years of litigation in which the judge estimates that solicitor-and-client costs would exceed $1-million for each side.