Law360 Canada (August 3, 2023, 6:26 AM EDT) -- Appeal by Springfield Taxpayers Rights Corp. (Applicant) from an order of motion judge striking its application for abuse of process and, alternatively, dismissing it for delay pursuant to rule 38.12 of MB, Court of King’s Bench Rules. It was also an appeal from an order dismissing its motion to amend its notice of application. The applicant was a non-profit corporation consisting of residents of the respondent Rural Municipality of Springfield in Manitoba (RM). It filed an application requesting that development permits that RM issued to the respondent Berger Peat Moss Ltd. (Berger) for the construction of a peat moss processing plant be declared invalid and an order of certiorari quashing them. RM and Berger filed motions to strike out the application because it constituted an abuse of process. They argued that the application should be dismissed for delay. The applicant subsequently filed a motion to amend the notice of application to add Akins as an applicant, which the motion judge dismissed. He granted the motion to strike the application without leave to amend on the basis that it constituted an abuse of process. Alternatively, he dismissed the application and ordered that the dismissal should act as a defence to subsequent applications....