Grover Holdings will be paying less than originally ordered after successfully appealing over $300,000 in fines related to two of its properties.
The Saskatoon-based company, owned by Jack Grover, was fined in 2018 after being convicted of two offences.
The first conviction, involving a four-plex at 617 Duchess St., was under the city’s property maintenance and nuisance abatement bylaw.
A bylaw inspector said garbage and junk had accumulated in the backyard of the four-plex and issued an order for the company to remedy the infractions.
The inspector testified at trial that he had written three previous orders related to the property and visited it over a dozen times in the preceding 21 months.
A provincial court justice of the peace found Grover Holdings guilty and fined it $15,000 with a $6,000 surcharge.
The second conviction, for a property at 201 26th St. W., was under the province’s Cities Act.
Grover Holdings was found guilty for failing to comply with an order dating back to Nov. 14, 2017, to fix deficiencies with the property.
Among those listed were a fence not being maintained, two broken windows, excessive accumulation of household waste, trees with dead branches, and damaged eavestroughs and downspouts.
The company was fined $201,000 — $1,000 for each day it failed to remedy the violations — and a victim surcharge of $80,400.
At trial, Grover Holdings had sought a fine of between $1,000 to $1,500 for each property, while the Crown argued for a fine of $3,200 for the Duchess Street property and $8,000 for the 26th Street property.
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Queen’s Bench Justice Heather MacMillan-Brown allowed the appeal on the fines, but not to what Grover Holdings had sought at trial.
“It is no exaggeration to describe the relationship between Mr. Grover and the city as a quarter-century-long series of municipal battles,” MacMillan-Brown wrote.
“This ongoing conflict is evidenced by the more than 150 convictions entered against Grover Holdings for bylaw and property offences since 1993.”
She reduced the Duchess Street fine to $10,500, including surcharges. The 26th Street West fine was reduced to $125 per day of the violation for a total of $35,175, including surcharges.
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“The actions of Grover Holdings, through Mr. Grover, are a continuation of an inexcusable course of conduct and must not be condoned,” MacMillan-Brown wrote in her decision dated Aug. 12, 2019.
“I have reduced these fines solely because they are, in total, disproportionate to the offences themselves and go beyond what is necessary to satisfy the principle of deterrence and the objective of protecting public safety.”
She went on to say the actions of Grover, on behalf of his company, are inexcusable.
“Hopefully, the significantly increased fines will finally drive home to Mr. Grover, on behalf of Grover Holdings, that his blatant disregard for municipal and court orders and blatant disregard for public safety will not be condoned.”
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