Conway

Following a successful trial where the plaintiff was awarded approximately $8.9 million, the plaintiff sought costs of $3.49 million based on a Rule 49.10 offer.

The defendant argued the offer was not a true compromise and challenged the proportionality of costs and specific disbursements.

The court found the Rule 49.10 offer was a genuine compromise, entitling the plaintiff to partial indemnity costs to the offer date and substantial indemnity costs thereafter.

The court allowed disbursements for fact witness preparation and e-discovery, but disallowed fees for an expert who did not testify.

Costs were fixed at $2.8 million.

The Receiver sought costs of a contempt motion against the respondent on a full indemnity basis.

The respondent had been found in civil contempt for breaching an appointment order and sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment.

The court awarded costs on a full indemnity basis, finding the respondent's conduct egregious and highly disrespectful to the court and its appointed officer.

The quantum was fixed at $563,485, with a minor reduction for time spent on irrelevant facts.

The Receiver brought a contempt motion against the respondent for breaching an appointment order by interfering with the Receiver's exclusive authority and supporting a criminal complaint against the Receiver's representatives in Panama.

Having previously found the respondent in civil contempt, the court determined the appropriate penalty.

Finding that the respondent's conduct was a blatant and deliberate breach that undermined the court's authority, and that a fine would be insufficient for deterrence, the court ordered the respondent to be imprisoned for 30 days.

The applicants subscribed for flow-through shares in mining companies, which renounced Canadian exploration expenses to them.

The CRA later reassessed the companies and the applicants, disallowing the expenses.

The applicants sought immediate indemnification from the respondent under their subscription agreements for the taxes paid under the reassessments.

The court dismissed the applications, finding that the indemnities were not payable until the amount of taxes was 'definitively determined' or 'determined', which had not yet occurred as the respondent's appeal of the CRA reassessment was still pending.

Cineplex and Cineworld entered into an Arrangement Agreement for Cineworld to acquire Cineplex for $2.8 billion.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and mandated theatre closures, Cineplex deferred payments to landlords and suppliers to manage liquidity.

Cineworld terminated the agreement, alleging Cineplex breached the ordinary course covenant.

The court found that Cineplex's cash management measures were commercially reasonable and did not breach the agreement, noting that the pandemic risk was allocated to Cineworld under the Material Adverse Effect clause.

Cineworld's termination was a repudiation, and Cineplex was awarded $1.24 billion in damages for lost synergies and transaction costs.

The joint liquidators of Stanford International Bank (SIB) and a group of investors brought actions against TD Bank, SIB's primary U.S. dollar correspondent bank, for knowing assistance in breach of fiduciary duty and negligence.

The plaintiffs alleged that TD Bank should have detected and prevented the massive Ponzi scheme orchestrated by SIB's owner, Allen Stanford.

The Superior Court of Justice dismissed the actions, finding that TD Bank had no actual knowledge of the fraud and was not reckless or wilfully blind.

The court also held that TD Bank did not owe a novel duty of care to protect its customer from insider abuse, and even if it did, it met the standard of care of a reasonable banker during the relevant period.

The applicant's employer was investigated by the Ontario Securities Commission.

The applicant was summoned to give evidence but refused to answer questions about their employment, citing a confidentiality clause in their employment agreement.

The applicant applied for directions and a declaration that the information was privileged.

The Commission cross-applied for declarations that the applicant must answer the questions.

The court dismissed the application and allowed the cross-application, finding that the information did not meet the Wigmore criteria for case-by-case privilege and that the applicant was required to attend the examination and answer all relevant questions, subject only to valid claims of privilege.

In a costs decision following a professional liability trial, the court determined that the defendants were the successful parties despite findings that they breached their fiduciary duties.

The plaintiffs had sought over $16 million in damages but were only awarded $2,000 in nominal damages.

The court found the defendants' claimed costs of $1,261,235 to be reasonable, but reduced the award by 25% to reflect the court's finding of breach of fiduciary duty.

The plaintiffs were ordered to pay $925,000 in partial indemnity costs.

Following a five-week trial where the plaintiffs succeeded in claims for breach of fiduciary duty and conspiracy, the court determined the appropriate scale and quantum of costs.

The plaintiffs sought over $6.2 million on a substantial indemnity basis.

The court rejected substantial indemnity costs, finding the defendants' litigation conduct did not warrant such a sanction and the pre-litigation conduct was already addressed through punitive damages and disgorgement.

The court awarded partial indemnity costs of $2,200,000 for the action and $20,000 for the counterclaim, apportioning liability among the defendants based on the claims.

The applicant sought to enforce a July 10, 2019 order from the Supreme Court of the State of New York appointing a temporary guardian for the respondent's mother and ordering the applicant, as trustee of a spousal trust, to pay funds for her well-being and investigation of her whereabouts.

The court applied the test for recognizing foreign judgments, finding the New York court had jurisdiction and the funding order was final.

The court recognized the order regarding the funding provisions but declined to recognize the provisions granting access to medical and confidential information due to privacy concerns.

The plaintiffs sued their former law firm and former in-house counsel for professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty arising from a commercial transaction and subsequent settlement.

The court found that the former in-house counsel breached his fiduciary duty by acting for the opposing party at a mediation, and that the law firm breached its standard of care by failing to warn the plaintiffs of this conflict.

The court also found the law firm breached its fiduciary duty by obtaining an ineffective conflict waiver.

However, the court concluded that these breaches did not cause the plaintiffs' claimed business losses, as the plaintiffs would have settled regardless and suffered no loss of chance.

The court awarded nominal damages of $2,000.

The plaintiffs, founders of a venture capital fund, brought an action against their co-founders and a third-party purchaser for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and conspiracy.

The court found that the co-founders secretly established a competing fund and conspired with the purchaser to acquire a portfolio company at a discounted price while concealing a valuable asset (the Tinder app).

The court awarded compensatory damages, disgorgement of profits, and punitive damages against the defendants.

The applicant applied to the Ontario Superior Court to recognize a summons issued by a Quebec provincial court for Ontario witnesses to testify via video-link in a Quebec securities trial.

The applicant relied on s. 152(4) of the Ontario Securities Act, the Interprovincial Summonses Act (ISA), and inherent jurisdiction.

The court dismissed the application, finding that s. 152(4) applies to administrative tribunals, not courts.

Furthermore, the ISA prohibits recognizing a summons from a province that lacks an absolute immunity provision, which Quebec does not have.

The court declined to exercise inherent jurisdiction to bypass the statutory immunity requirement.

In a priority dispute following the bankruptcy of a paving company, a bond company argued that funds held by the receiver in a project account were statutory trust funds under the Construction Lien Act and therefore excluded from the bankrupt's estate under s. 67(1)(a) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.

The court dismissed the trust claim, finding that the funds lacked the certainty of subject matter required to constitute a true common law trust, as they were not identifiable or held separately prior to the receivership.

Consequently, the funds were to be distributed under the BIA scheme.

The Receiver of a bankrupt masonry contractor sought directions to distribute remaining funds to a secured creditor.

A subcontractor opposed the distribution, arguing the funds were subject to a deemed trust under the Construction Lien Act and excluded from the bankruptcy estate.

The court found that the funds did not meet the certainty of subject matter required for a trust under general trust principles, as all funds were commingled in a single account.

The court ordered the funds distributed to the secured creditor.

Following the dismissal of the plaintiffs' oppression action in a family-owned business shareholder dispute, the successful defendants sought partial indemnity costs of $333,872.

The plaintiffs argued the defendants' counsel spent excessive hours and suggested a costs award of $267,098.

The court found the defendants' costs were high but acknowledged the significant resources required to defend the litigation.

Applying the principle that costs must be fair and reasonable for the unsuccessful party to pay, the court fixed costs at $275,000 and declined the defendants' request to deduct the award from the plaintiffs' future dividend payments.

The City of Toronto brought a motion to quash an appeal by Brookfield from an arbitration award determining the fair market rental for a commercial property.

The court held that under the arbitration agreement and the Arbitration Act, 1991, the parties' appeal rights were limited to questions of law with leave.

The court found that Brookfield's grounds of appeal, which related to valuation theories, lease rates, and contractual interpretation, raised questions of fact or mixed fact and law, not questions of law.

Consequently, the motion to quash the appeal was granted.

The applicant sought recognition of a $22 million arbitral award against the respondent.

The respondent opposed recognition, arguing it would be contrary to Ontario public policy because its counsel in the arbitration had a conflict of interest by providing expert evidence in a separate case that the applicant could indirectly benefit from.

The court rejected this defence, finding that the alleged conflict did not fundamentally offend basic principles of justice and fairness, and granted the order recognizing the award.

Following a trial where the plaintiff university successfully proved that the defendants engaged in fraudulent activities and breached their fiduciary duties, the parties could not agree on costs.

The court awarded the plaintiff full indemnity costs against the primary defendants who orchestrated the fraud, and partial indemnity costs against the defendants involved only in fraudulent conveyances.

No costs were awarded for earlier motions due to divided success.

The plaintiff university brought an action against its former Assistant Vice-President and Director of Maintenance, alleging they orchestrated multiple fraudulent schemes, including false invoicing, kickbacks, and using university resources for personal residence improvements.

The court found the defendants liable for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, ordering them to pay damages.

The court also voided the transfer of the primary defendant's properties to his family members as fraudulent conveyances and rescinded his severance agreement due to material non-disclosure of his fraudulent activities.