Aside from the seminal yet apparently unreported decision of The State of New York v. Kris Kringle, which was dramatized in Miracle on 34th Street, there have been numerous other mentions of Santa Claus in judicial decisions. In honour of the season, I take this opportunity to note the following:
- In Frasko v. Saturn 121, Inc. et al, which the judge described as “a novel application”, the plaintiff sued 115 shell corporations. (The plaintiff was said to be in the business of buying and
selling shelf companies.) The plaintiff noted the 115 defendants in default, and moved for default judgment. In support of the noting in default, the plaintiff filed a 100 page affidavit of service. In it, as stated by the judge, the plaintiff claimed to have served or attempted to personally serve the 115 corporate defendants at a wide variety of locations throughout Ontario in only three days, plus 10 other corporate defendants in another proceeding. The judge questioned the accuracy of the affidavit of service, stating: “While Santa Claus has perfected the art of visiting millions of homes in a single night, [the plaintiff’s] affidavit of service makes no claim to have enlisted such assistance in effecting such a miracle of personal service.”
- In Royal Bank v. Edna Granite & Marble Inc, the defendants argued that they had not made payments on a loan for a number of years, and thus the claim was statute-barred. Payments were, however, made by the guarantors of the loan. The bank argued that it did not matter who made the payments: whether they were made “by the borrower, by the Guarantors, or by Santa Claus”. The court accepted this argument.
- In v. Liu, referred to in R. v. Sipes at para. 718, the accused was charged with first-degree murder. Upon his arrest, scratches were observed on his neck and chest. Expert evidence established that the scratches were consistent with ancient Chinese medical treatment. For some reason, the accused sent one of the investigating officers a Christmas card depicting Santa Claus with scratches on his back, being looked at incredulously by Mrs. Claus. The front of the card read “I swear, Honey – I scratched it going down a chimney. Inside the card read “Sometimes, even Mrs. Claus has a hard time believing in Santa.” There, the Crown was unsuccessful in adducing the card as evidence at trial, as its probative value was “tenuous”, yet the potential prejudice was high.
- In v. M.J.O., the judge had difficulty believing the accused’s evidence. “I have read the Mr. M.J.O.’s statement on several occasions. I cannot imaging circumstances that would lead me to believe it. To believe that version of events, in the face of the objective evidence, I would have to believe in Santa Claus and the tooth—fairy.”
There are many other reported reference to Santa Claus on CanLII. Many of them are in sad or disturbing contexts, and are not appropriate for a Friday, pre-Christmas blog.
Happy holidays.