Christopher Graham

The plaintiff commenced an action against her husband's children and the lawyers who acted for him in prior divorce proceedings, alleging conspiracy, abuse of process, and other torts.

The defendants moved to strike or dismiss the claims under Rule 21.

The court dismissed the claims against the adverse lawyers, finding no duty of care was owed to the plaintiff.

The court also dismissed the tort claims for abuse of process, conspiracy, and intentional interference with economic relations as an abuse of process by relitigation, as they sought to undermine the final settlement reached in the divorce proceedings.

The defamation and intentional infliction of mental suffering claims were struck with leave to amend.

The applicants, parents and trustees of a trust established for their son following a serious brain injury, applied to pass their accounts.

The trust received $418,675.25 over 17 years, but the trustees administered it entirely in cash and lacked receipts for most disbursements.

The court found that the trustees failed to keep proper records and included fictitious loans and unpaid services in the accounts.

While some expenses were allowed, the trustees failed to account for $165,531.14.

After deducting $15,000 for trustee compensation, the court ordered the trustees to repay $150,531.14 to the trust.

Following a complex estates trial involving claims and counterclaims among family members, the court determined the costs of the proceedings.

Finding no clear winner or loser, the court applied the modern approach to estates costs and ordered that the partial indemnity costs of the respondent sons and the estate of a deceased son be paid out of the father's estate, due to the public policy considerations engaged by the father's pre-death actions.

The court also ordered the estate to pay the reasonable preparation and attendance costs of non-party professional witnesses.

The applicant sought full indemnity costs of $244,556.99 for an application regarding ownership interests in a property, citing the respondent's litigation tactics and delayed production of documents.

The respondent argued for no costs due to divided success, as the applicant did not succeed in claiming a 100% interest or an order for sale.

The court awarded the applicant substantial indemnity costs, reduced by 50% to reflect partial success, fixing the costs at $110,050.65.

The applicant estate trustee sought a declaration of the deceased's 50% interest in a condominium property.

The property was originally held in joint tenancy by the deceased and his mother.

The court found that the joint tenancy was severed prior to the deceased's death through the mother's unilateral instructions to her lawyer to sever the tenancy and the deceased's use of his interest as security for a support order.

The court declared the mother's subsequent survivorship application void and ordered the title rectified to reflect a tenancy in common, but declined to order partition and sale while the mother still resided in the property.

The applicant's estate sought costs for a successful dependent's support motion.

The court awarded substantial indemnity costs of $84,456.11 against the respondent estate trustee and the estate jointly and severally, citing the respondent's vituperative opposition and the applicant's unaccepted offer to settle.

A supporting respondent's request for costs was dismissed as there was no lis between him and the opposing respondent.