A Toronto condominium owner has been ordered to stop his guests from stealing other residents’ food orders from the lobby.
The condo corporation in question alleged that, on May 26, David Meghan breached a settlement agreement they’d worked out “by stealing food which had been delivered for another resident from the corporation’s lobby.”
In her Nov. 18 decision, the Condominium Authority Tribunal’sMary Ann Spencer notes there was a “second incident of an alleged theft of a food delivery and clarified that the alleged perpetrators in both incidents were guests of Mr. Meghan.”
Spencer found that Meghan had breached the settlement agreement when it came to food deliveries.
She ordered him to pay $125 to the condo corp., or about the cost of a takeout order for four.
But Meghan’s condo corporation failed in its bid to ding him for making too much noise, even though he appears to have used artificial intelligence to make his case.
“Mr. Meghan denies that he made unreasonable noise on either March 9, 2024 or July 13, 2024,” said a new decision from the Condominium Authority Tribunal’s Mary Ann Spencer.
“In support of his position, he referred me to three tribunal decisions in his closing submission. While he included full case citations, it appears that the citations may have been generated with AI assistance. A thorough search revealed that none of the cited cases exist. Further, they are dated before January 1, 2022, the date when the tribunal’s jurisdiction expanded to include nuisance disputes. Therefore, I have not considered any of these decisions’ findings to which Mr. Meghan referred.”
The case involved Toronto Standard Condominium Corporation No. 2744, also known as the Minto Westside on Front Street West.
The tribunal’s decision notes Meghan had already agreed to “remove his soundbar and subwoofer, or any other noise projecting equipment, with the exception of a small speaker or television played at a reasonable level.”
He’d also agreed to “have food delivered straight to his unit door, instead of having it delivered to a common element area.”
Jamie Morillo, the building’s manager, “testified that food deliveries ordered by residents on May 26, 2024 and August 3, 2024 were taken by individuals known to be frequent guests of Mr. Meghan,” said the decision.
The condo corporation “provided evidence in the form of incident reports indicating when the residents reported their deliveries missing and security system video recordings which substantiate that Mr. Meghan’s guests, on admission to the building, took deliveries from the table in the corporation’s lobby shortly before those reports were made.”
On cross-examination, Meghan “agreed that his guests took the food deliveries on May 26, 2024 and Aug. 3, 2024. He submitted that they may have ordered food to be delivered to the building and then picked up other residents’ deliveries by mistake,” said the decision.
“He argued that use of the common element lobby for private deliveries is an inappropriate use of a communal space and increases the risk of orders going missing. He further submitted that he cannot be held responsible for the actions of his guests.”
According to Meghan, his settlement agreement with the condo corporation “does not obligate me to monitor or control where my visitors receive their food, nor does it hold me responsible for their actions without any direct proof of misconduct.”
The condo corporation’s “unfounded claims are an unjust attack on my reputation, casting doubt on my honesty without any evidence to support such serious accusations,” Meghan said.
But Spencer said he is responsible for the actions of his guests. “Further, I find his arguments to be disingenuous. The background filed in this case indicates that he was informed of his responsibility for the conduct of his guests in a letter sent by legal counsel on April 18, 2023. That letter referred to multiple incidents both of unreasonable noise and of Mr. Meghan and his guests stealing food deliveries.”
Morillo testified about “two incidents of alleged unreasonable noise emanating from Mr. Meghan’s unit,” said the decision.
The first, on March 9 at 10:40 p.m., involved a resident complaining “about loud music coming from Mr. Meghan’s unit. This resident testified that the noise, which she described as including screaming and banging, had started the evening before and had continued throughout the day.”
Security staff reacted “promptly,” and contacted Meghan by phone, “who agreed to lower the music volume.”
On July 13 at 8:40 p.m., another noise complaint prompted security staff to shoot “a video of decibel levels measured with a sound level meter. The video recording shows readings ranging between 52.2 and 62.7 decibels over its 13 second length.”
According to Yale University’s environmental health experts, 60-70 decibels is comparable to a normal conversation.
Spencer noted that one of the clauses in Meghan’s settlement agreement with the condo corporation required him to “acquire a sound level meter and take readings from time to time. The implication is that decibel readings will somehow be determinant. However, the agreement is unfortunately silent on what would comprise an acceptable level, bringing into question the efficacy of this clause.”
On March 9, “Meghan was co-operative when advised that noise from his unit was disturbing another resident,” Spencer said.
And there was no evidence that Meghan was contacted about the July 13 noise complaint, she said.
“The evidence is insufficient to persuade me that there was unreasonable noise on either March 9, 2024 or July 13, 2024.”
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