The plaintiff homeowner brought a subrogated claim against renovators working on his neighbours home, who caused structural damage to the plaintiffs property. The plaintiff brought a motion to amend the statement of claim to substitute a ‘John Doe’ contractor with the correct contractor name. The motion was brought more than two years after the loss had occurred. The defendant argued that the plaintiff knew the identity of the actual contractor within the limitation period (email correspondence shows that he must have), and if the plaintiff actually intended on bringing a claim against the defendant within the limitation period, he would have done so. Master Sugunasiri granted the plaintiffs motion. She held that the threshold for the misnomer test was met and that a fair reading of the claim demonstrated that the plaintiff intended to sue the actual contractor for negligent construction. She was not persuaded that the plaintiffs previous knowledge of the contractors identity negated that intention.
