This was a tribunal costs decision following a lengthy commercial dispute under the Farm Implements Act involving extensive interlocutory steps, seventeen hearing days, expert evidence, and an interim appeal to the Divisional Court.
The Tribunal held it had jurisdiction to award costs under the Statutory Powers Procedure Act and its own Rules, and found the responding party's conduct sufficiently unreasonable to satisfy the statutory preconditions for a costs award.
Applying by analogy the Rule 57 factors and common-law costs principles, the Tribunal held that the successful party was entitled to costs, but only on a partial indemnity basis because the conduct did not meet the reprehensible threshold required for substantial indemnity.
The Tribunal reduced claimed legal hours for duplication, overstaffing, unsuccessful issues, and delay, and disallowed major expert disbursements where the expert evidence was unreliable or unhelpful.
Costs were fixed at $376,338.05.
