Can a motion to enforce a settlement agreement be successful?

In Conflitti v. Church of Scientology of Toronto, [1998] O.J. No. 4008 Gans J. considered a summary judgment motion to enforce a settlement agreement. The only real issue was whether the plaintiffs could enforce the agreement after they had sued on the original cause of action after the settlement was repudiated by the defendant. Gans J. found that the plaintiffs had accepted the defendant’s repudiation of the agreement but, in suing on the original claim, had not elected an option which was inconsistent with enforcing the settlement. In their settlement agreement the parties had specifically agreed that the original cause of action would survive a repudiation. Accordingly, it was open for the plaintiffs to sue on the original cause of action and then subsequently so seek to enforce the settlement. The judge characterized this as pursuing two independent options in series. He also noted that since the plaintiffs could have pursued the claims to enforce the settlement and for the original cause of action in the alternative, there was nothing to prevent them from pursuing the claims one after the other.