Andrew MacDonald

Following dismissal of the defendants' summary judgment motion, the court determined the plaintiff's entitlement to costs.

The court applied rule 57.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure and assessed objections to the plaintiff's bill of costs, including pre-motion entries, client communications, clerical work, and factum preparation time.

The court rejected a substantial indemnity award but found the claimed partial indemnity fees and disbursements were within the range the unsuccessful moving parties should reasonably have expected.

Costs were awarded to the plaintiff on a partial indemnity scale in the amount of $36,330 plus disbursements of $2,567.21, inclusive of applicable taxes.

The appellant appealed a trial judgment finding that the employee had resigned rather than being fired.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, holding that the issue was fact-driven and the trial judge made no palpable and overriding error in analyzing the evidence or applying the law regarding employee resignation.

The United States District Court sought judicial assistance via letters rogatory under s. 43 of the Canada Evidence Act to obtain documents and tape recordings for a criminal tax evasion trial in Florida.

The Alberta Court of Appeal held that s. 43 did not permit an order for the production of documents unless it was ancillary to oral testimony.

The Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal, holding that s. 43 should be given a broad, liberal construction in the interests of comity and permits an order for the production of documents alone.

The Court also held that illegally intercepted telephone conversations could be disclosed at the s. 43 hearing, provided they were only used against accused persons who were not parties to the communications.