Rob Ford got a late Christmas present today in the form of Justice John MacDonald's decision to drop the $6 million libel case brought against him by Boardwalk Cafe owner, George Foulidis.

The ruling would appear to rest on two key points: 1) that Foulidis was never able to prove that comments Ford made about Tuggs Inc. could be reasonably interpreted to defame the plaintiff, and 2) that Ford's statements merely claimed suspicion of corruption, which he qualified had no factual basis during the Sun editorial meeting that served as the occasion for his comments about Tuggs Inc.

Shortly after the ruling was made public, the mayor's office released a statement. "I welcome today's decision by the court to dismiss the Foulidis lawsuit against me," it reads. "I will continue fighting to represent the best interest of Toronto taxpayers at city hall. There is still a lot of work to be done and I will continue to focus on this."

So that's one legal battle in the books with Ford on the winning side. One does, however, wonder if that'll be the outcome of his conflict of interest appeal. You can read the full text of the judge's decision here.

Photo by BruceK in the blogTO Flickr pool