In a director's liability case, the trial judge erred in excluding from evidence some notes that the taxpayer had taken from a phone conversation with a fellow director. The taxpayer's notes indicated that she had been informed that she had been voted off the board of directors, which would support her contention that she fell outside the two-year limitations period in s. 227.1(4).
The trial judge had dismissed the notes as hearsay, but the case was heard under the informal procedure, which only allows the dismissal of hearsay evidence after a consideration of whether it is sufficiently reliable and probative to justify its admission, taking into account the need for a fair and expeditious hearing (para. 14). The trial judge could not have made such a consideration as he had refused to even look at the evidence.