Magna Told to Pay Damages

Magna International, the auto parts maker controlled by Frank Stronach, must pay almost $734,000 to a Toronto-area developer that accused the company of failing to make adequate repairs when it moved out of a leased building in 1999, an appeals court ruled.
Magna commissioned the 80,000-square-foot Vaughan, Ont., structure in 1989 from Stellarbridge Management and used the building as offices and manufacturing space before vacating it.
The unanimous ruling, by a three-judge panel of the Ontario Court of Appeals, raised the amount of the trial-court judgment by 39 percent. Magna had argued that it owed $119,700 for repairs.
Under the lease, Magna agreed to return the property in “a good state of repair and maintenance,” the ruling said. Ontario Superior Court Justice Ellen MacDonald found in 2002 that the building was left in a “dirty and unkempt state” and that Magna undertook “numerous structural changes” contrary to the lease.