An Ontario Superior Court judge has ordered a man embroiled in a long-running and complex legal dispute to pay more than $41,000 in past legal debts to his opponent and a court-appointed receiver before he is allowed to proceed with a critical motion concerning a nearly $1.4 million bankruptcy claim1. In a written decision released on September 10, 2025, Justice Mew stipulated that if Andrew Clifford Miracle fails to pay the full amount by September 22, 2025, his motion, scheduled for a hearing in October, will be automatically dismissed without further argument. The ruling is the latest development in a multi-faceted legal battle involving bankruptcy proceedings, a receivership, and competing claims to a significant sum of money held in trust.
The order came in response to a motion for security for costs brought by Glenn Bogue, a central figure in the interconnected lawsuits. Mr. Bogue asked the court to compel Mr. Miracle to provide funds as a guarantee for the legal costs of an upcoming hearing. The basis for Mr. Bogue’s request was threefold: that Mr. Miracle had several unpaid costs awards against him from previous court encounters, that he had insufficient assets within Ontario that could be seized to cover future costs, and that his pending motion was frivolous and vexatious. This legal saga involves not only Mr. Bogue and Mr. Miracle but also the bankruptcy estate of a third individual, Andrew Clifford Maracle III, and a court-appointed receiver, Schwartz Levitsky Feldman Inc., which is overseeing Mr. Miracle’s assets.
The core of the dispute is set to be argued in a Belleville court on October 3, 2025, where two competing motions are scheduled. Mr. Miracle’s motion seeks to have his approved claim of $1,395,636.84 in the bankruptcy of Andrew Clifford Maracle III paid out to him directly. He is also asking the court for a declaration that a solicitor’s lien claimed by Mr. Bogue should not take precedence over his own claim to the funds. Furthermore, Mr. Miracle is challenging a levy of $55,441.91 imposed by the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, asking that it be cancelled and removed from his claim. The outcome of this motion is pivotal for Mr. Miracle, as it represents the culmination of his efforts to recover the substantial sum from the bankruptcy estate.
Simultaneously, the court will hear a motion from Mr. Bogue, who is advancing his own claim to the same pool of money. Mr. Bogue is seeking a declaration that he is a secured creditor, which would grant him priority over all other creditors, including Mr. Miracle, to the bankruptcy funds being held by the trustee. Mr. Bogue is also asking to amend a previous court judgment from April 2024 to include pre-judgment interest, and he is requesting that the court assign him the right to take over the prosecution of a related lawsuit from the receiver appointed for Mr. Miracle. These dueling motions place Mr. Miracle and Mr. Bogue in direct opposition, with each seeking a court order that would give them primary access to the limited funds available from the Maracle bankruptcy.
In his analysis, Justice Mew first confirmed the court’s authority to order security for costs in bankruptcy proceedings, a principle established in previous case law. He then turned to the factual record of Mr. Miracle’s unpaid debts. The court found it was undisputed that Mr. Miracle owed significant amounts from prior cost awards. Specifically, a court order from May 28, 2024, required him to pay $19,482.33 to Schwartz Levitsky Feldman Inc. in its capacity as his receiver. Two more recent orders, from August 13 and August 14, 2025, required him to pay a combined $20,000 directly to Mr. Bogue. With accumulated interest on the first award, the total amount of unpaid costs stood at $41,186.10 as of late August 2025.
Justice Mew observed a distinct pattern in Mr. Miracle’s litigation conduct. The judge noted that the recent history of the proceedings showed that Mr. Miracle has repeatedly failed to pay costs awards made against him. He would only pay these outstanding amounts when forced to do so by the court as a condition for taking further steps to advance his own legal interests. The judge remarked that while Mr. Miracle has previously argued that he lacks sufficient assets in Ontario to pay such costs, he has consistently managed to produce the necessary funds for security or to pay outstanding awards whenever it was made a prerequisite for continuing with a motion, application, or appeal. This history of reluctant compliance appeared to weigh heavily on the court’s decision-making process.
However, the judge did not accept all of Mr. Bogue’s arguments. On the issue of whether Mr. Miracle’s motion was frivolous, vexatious, or an abuse of process, Justice Mew sided with Mr. Miracle. The judge acknowledged that the upcoming hearing represents the decisive moment for the parties’ competing claims to the funds held by the bankruptcy trustee. He stated that Mr. Bogue was effectively asking him to pre-judge the merits of Mr. Miracle’s arguments in the context of a security for costs motion. Justice Mew declined to do so, writing, “I am satisfied that Mr. Miracle has advanced arguments which deserve to be fully considered on their merits.” This finding confirmed that while Mr. Miracle’s payment history was problematic, his legal case itself had substantive issues worthy of a full hearing.
Despite finding merit in Mr. Miracle’s arguments, the judge could not ignore the outstanding debts. He highlighted the apparent reality that, unless the court intervened, Mr. Miracle would enter the October 3 hearing while owing Mr. Bogue and the receiver more than $40,000. The judge also addressed the receiver’s position in the matter. Although the receiver, Schwartz Levitsky Feldman Inc., had not brought its own motion for security for costs, Mr. Bogue argued that he had a direct interest in seeing the receiver paid. He reasoned that any legal fees incurred by the receiver would ultimately reduce the funds that Mr. Bogue is entitled to under the receivership order. Justice Mew accepted this premise, acknowledging Mr. Bogue’s vested interest in having Mr. Miracle satisfy his cost obligations to the receiver as well.
Ultimately, Justice Mew crafted a specific and conditional order. He declined to grant a traditional order for security for the future costs of the motion. Instead, he ruled that if Mr. Miracle wanted his motion to be heard, he must first settle his existing debts. The order requires Mr. Miracle to pay the outstanding amounts by September 22, 2025. He must pay $20,000 to the trust account of Mr. Bogue’s lawyer, Greg Roberts Professional Corporation, and $21,186.10 to the trust account of the receiver’s counsel, Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP. The consequence for non-compliance is severe and final: “Failure to pay these costs will result in the automatic dismissal of Mr. Miracle’s motion.”
To conclude the matter, the court addressed the costs of the security for costs motion itself. Acknowledging that Mr. Bogue had achieved a significant portion of what he sought, Justice Mew determined that he had enjoyed “partial success.” As a result, the judge fixed the costs for this specific motion at $2,500, an amount which Mr. Miracle is now ordered to pay to Mr. Bogue within 30 days. The decision places the onus squarely on Mr. Miracle to clear his outstanding debts if he wishes to have his day in court on the larger, multi-million dollar claim.
