Edwina Mayama

The plaintiff was successful in resisting the defendants' motion to stay this proposed class action and sought costs on a partial indemnity basis.

The defendants argued the costs should be reduced by the amount spent cross-examining a lawyer from a parallel British Columbia action who intervened on their own initiative.

The court agreed, finding the defendants did not solicit the affidavit and should not bear the costs of the cross-examination, awarding the plaintiff $33,500 in costs.

The moving party brought a motion for leave to appeal a lower court decision.

The Divisional Court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal and awarded costs of $5,000 all-inclusive to the responding parties.

The plaintiffs in this proposed class action sought production of documents from Patrick Sheridan, a non-party and former executive of Guyana Goldfields Inc., relating to alleged misrepresentations and governance failures at the company.

The court granted the motion for non-party production, finding the documents highly relevant to the core issues in the action and necessary for a fair adjudication of the leave and certification motions.

The court rejected the defendants’ argument that the motion was premature or a “fishing expedition,” emphasizing that the plaintiffs knew exactly what documents they sought and that Sheridan was uniquely positioned to provide them.

Costs were awarded to the plaintiffs.