The plaintiff's application to strike out the defendant council's defence on liability for late discovery of photographs and condition reports was dismissed, with costs reserved. The court held that the late discovery was the product of inadvertence rather than deliberate conduct, that the plaintiff had not demonstrated irremediable prejudice directly linked to the facts in issue, and that any prejudice could be remedied by trial management orders permitting the plaintiff to lead further expert evidence on the newly discovered material. The extreme remedy of striking out a pleading remains reserved for the most serious conduct undermining a fair trial, and a party seeking such relief must directly relate the prejudice from the discovery default to the specific fact sought to be taken as admitted.
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