Elizabeth Naomi Kikuchi

During a lengthy civil trial concerning federal relocation service contracts, the plaintiffs brought a motion to vary an earlier production order that had refused disclosure of a competitor’s administration fees.

After hearing extensive trial evidence, the court concluded that the administration fees were relevant to both liability and damages, particularly in understanding the effect of a zero‑percent bid for property management services.

Newly discovered facts showed that the defendant’s expert had requested and used the fees in internal analyses despite earlier representations suggesting otherwise.

Applying Rule 59.06(2)(a) of the Rules of Civil Procedure, the court held that orders may be varied where new facts arise or are discovered that would have materially affected the earlier decision.

The court therefore ordered limited disclosure of the administration fees and related reconciliation documents.

During an ongoing civil trial, the plaintiffs sought leave to amend their statement of claim based on information obtained from documents recently disclosed by the defendant relating to an internal investigation into conflicts of interest in a government procurement process.

The proposed amendments alleged concealment of investigation results, revisions to internal reports, reprisals against the investigator, and motivations behind a subsequent retendering process.

The defendant opposed only the allegations concerning disciplinary threats against the investigator, arguing they were not relevant to the pleaded causes of action.

The court held that the amendments were prima facie meritorious and relevant to the plaintiffs’ theory that the defendant intended to conceal the investigation results and influenced the investigation process.

Finding no non-compensable prejudice under Rule 26 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, the court granted leave to amend the statement of claim.

The plaintiffs brought a motion to amend their statement of claim during the cross‑examination of a witness.

The court addressed the procedural steps required to fairly accommodate the amendments while the trial was ongoing.

The judge ordered that the plaintiffs complete the current cross‑examination, after which the defendant could file an amended statement of defence responding to the amendments.

Additional procedural directions were provided allowing the defendant to recall the witness, conduct examination in chief on new matters, and potentially call further witnesses addressing issues arising from the amendments.

The plaintiffs sought a ruling confirming the admissibility of documents produced pursuant to a prior court order in litigation concerning federal relocation services procurement processes.

The defendant argued that the documents constituted hearsay, lacked authenticity, and were irrelevant to the fairness of the procurement process.

The court rejected these objections, finding the documents relevant to issues including alleged bias or preferential treatment in favour of another service provider and the conduct of government officials during the procurement processes.

The court held that the documents formed part of contractual documentation required under the relevant requests for proposal and were admissible for evidentiary purposes, including cross‑examination and proof of their contents.

Costs of the ruling were awarded to the plaintiffs on a partial indemnity basis.