Ahmad Mozaffari

The plaintiffs, property developers, brought a motion for leave to amend their statement of claim to add three new defendants and plead conspiracy and oppression regarding allegedly inflated billings for deficiency work.

The proposed defendants opposed the motion, arguing the claims were statute-barred under the Limitations Act, 2002.

The court granted the motion, finding the plaintiffs had exercised reasonable diligence in investigating the billing discrepancies and raised a triable issue regarding discoverability.

The court held that the proposed amendments disclosed a reasonable cause of action and would not cause undue prejudice.

The plaintiffs in two related actions brought motions for the production of information by the corporate defendants under the Business Corporations Act.

The parties settled the motions 'except for costs' and filed written costs submissions.

The plaintiffs sought substantial indemnity costs, arguing the motions were unnecessary as the defendants ultimately consented to the relief sought.

The court declined to award costs, holding that costs generally should not be awarded when parties settle 'except for costs.' The court reasoned that determining costs in such circumstances would require a hypothetical adjudication of the merits, which is an inefficient use of judicial resources and runs counter to the principle that costs are an incident of the determination of rights, not the subject matter of the dispute itself.

The applicants sought an order under the oppression remedy provisions of the OBCA to force the sale of the respondents' shares in a jointly owned corporation, alleging an irreconcilable relationship breakdown and corporate deadlock.

The applicants also sought a winding up of related corporations.

The court found that the applicant, who was the sole director and officer, continued to operate the business successfully and had manufactured the alleged deadlock to circumvent a contractual moratorium on a shotgun buy-sell provision.

The application was dismissed as the court found no oppressive conduct and no justification for a just and equitable winding up.