Date: 20050929
Docket: A-20-05
Citation: 2005 FCA 313
CORAM: DESJARDINS J.A.
BETWEEN:
MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
Applicant
and
JOHN UZONI
Respondent
Heard at Toronto, Ontario, on September 29, 2005.
Judgment delivered from the Bench at Toronto, Ontario, on September 29, 2005.
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT OF THE COURT BY: EVANS J.A.
Date: 20050929
Docket: A-20-05
Citation: 2005 FCA 313
CORAM: DESJARDINS J.A.
BETWEEN:
MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
Applicant
and
JOHN UZONI
Respondent
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
(Delivered from the Bench at Toronto, Ontario, on September 29, 2005)
[1] This is an application for judicial review by the Minister of Human Resources Development to set aside a decision of the Pension Appeals Board, dated September 8, 2004, allowing an appeal from the Review Tribunal, dated February 19, 2005. The Board awarded a disability pension under the Canada Pension Plan, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-8, to the respondent, John Uzoni.
[2] The Board found that, on or before December 31, 1995, the end of Mr. Uzoni's minimum qualifying period, he was suffering from a severe and prolonged disability (depression) which prevented him from working. Counsel for the Minister conceded that there was sufficient evidence in the record on which the Board could lawfully have decided that Mr. Uzoni was eligible for a disability pension under subsection 42(2) of the Plan. However, she agued, the Board's reasons for decision were inadequate because they did not contain a meaningful review of the evidence and, in particular, did not explain why it found that he was disabled from work by December 31, 1995.
[3] We disagree. Admittedly, the Board's analysis of the medical reports is brief and selective. Nonetheless, we are all of the opinion that the Board's reasons make the basis of its decision sufficiently clear, and the evidence which it did not analyse in its reasons was not such as in law to require analysis.
[4] We are also of the view that the Board was entitled to decline to draw an adverse inference from Mr. Uzoni's absence from the hearing. His absence was adequately explained by Dr. Cobus and, in these circumstances, the Board was not required to elaborate in its reasons why it did not draw the adverse inference requested by the Minister.
[5] For these reasons, the application for judicial review will be dismissed with costs.
"John M. Evans"
J.A.
FEDERAL COURT OF APPEAL
NAMES OF COUNSEL AND SOLICITORS OF RECORD
DOCKET: A-20-05
STYLE OF CAUSE: MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCES
DEVELOPMENT
Applicant
and
JOHN UZONI
Respondent
PLACE OF HEARING: TORONTO, ONTARIO
DATE OF HEARING: SEPTEMBER 29, 2005
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
OF THE COURT: (DESJARDINS, EVANS & SHARLOW JJ.A.)
DELIVERED FROM
THE BENCH: EVANS J.A.
APPEARANCES:
Sandra Gruescu
FOR THE APPLICANT
Paul Barrafato
FOR THE RESPONDENT
SOLICITORS OF RECORD:
John H. Sims, Q.C.
Deputy Attorney General of Canada
FOR THE APPLICANT
Bartolini, Berlingieri, Barrafato, Fortino LLP
Hamilton, Ontario
FOR THE RESPONDENT