Caroline Abela

Following a successful application regarding an international fraud scheme, the applicants sought costs against the respondents.

The court awarded substantial indemnity costs of $185,000 against the corporate respondent, Iberbanco, due to its ongoing willful disregard for court orders, misrepresentations to the court, unfounded allegations against the applicants, and efforts to impede the investigation.

The court declined to order costs against the individual respondents personally, as no relief had been granted against them in the main application.

The plaintiffs invested in a land development project in Brampton promoted by the defendants.

The defendants promised to develop the property into a subdivision and deliver serviced lots to the investors.

However, the defendants never developed the property, secretly used project funds to pay for their personal expenses, and ultimately sold the undeveloped land to a third-party developer for over $15.3 million.

The plaintiffs sued for breach of contract, fraud, conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty, and unjust enrichment.

The Superior Court of Justice allowed the actions, finding that the defendants had engaged in a deliberate pattern of deceptive and self-serving misconduct.

The court imposed a constructive trust and awarded the plaintiffs a pro-rata share of the sale proceeds based on their capital contributions, totaling over $10.6 million, plus $150,000 in punitive damages.

The court addressed a costs dispute concerning a claimed accounting disbursement incurred during motion proceedings involving a family trust dispute.

The responding parties argued that the accounting work performed by an accounting firm was duplicative of the work performed by an expert witness retained by the moving party.

The court found that the accounting firm and the expert witness served distinct roles and that the accounting work was reasonably necessary in light of accounting evidence advanced by the opposing parties.

The court also noted that the responding parties themselves had retained multiple accounting professionals.

The challenged disbursement was therefore allowed.

Following a successful interim motion, the plaintiff sought substantial partial indemnity costs including legal fees and significant disbursements.

The defendants challenged the seniority of plaintiff’s counsel, the necessity of multiple cross-examinations, and certain expert-related disbursements.

The court rejected arguments that senior counsel or the scope of cross-examination rendered the costs unreasonable and held that the successful party was entitled to recover reasonable litigation expenses incurred to respond to the defendants’ positions.

Expert accounting fees incurred to respond to the opposing expert were allowed.

The court fixed legal fees at $75,000 plus HST and allowed most disbursements, reserving determination of one accounting disbursement pending further submissions.

The plaintiff brought a motion for interim relief under the oppression provisions of the OBCA against his parents and various family corporations.

He sought an interim distribution of proceeds from a US litigation and the continuation of monthly payments he had historically received.

The court declined to order the interim distribution due to the contingent nature of the funds, but ordered the funds protected and settlement information disclosed.

The court also declined to order the continuation of historical monthly payments, finding them to be personal gifts.

However, the court found a strong prima facie case of oppression regarding unequal cash advances made to other shareholders from a family holding company, and ordered interim equalization payments and a halt to non-dividend cash advances.