F. Soccol

The plaintiff subcontractor entered into a fixed-price contract with the defendant general contractor to install high-pressure concrete watermains at a pumping station.

The installed pipes repeatedly failed pressure tests.

The plaintiff stopped work, claiming non-payment of invoices, and the defendant subsequently terminated the contract.

In this first phase of a bifurcated trial to determine liability, the court found that the plaintiff failed to prove the pipes failed due to the defendant's failure to provide a stable subgrade or install a concrete beam.

The court also found the plaintiff was not owed the claimed funds under the contract's payment terms when it stopped work.

Consequently, the court concluded the plaintiff breached the contract by abandoning the project.

In an ongoing construction lien reference, both the plaintiff and the defendant sought costs for prior motions.

The plaintiff had taken over the litigation from the original plaintiff after the original plaintiff went bankrupt.

The court found that the defendant unreasonably delayed consenting to the plaintiff's lift-stay motions, entitling the plaintiff to costs.

However, the court also found that the current plaintiff was the 'real litigant' behind the bankrupt original plaintiff during the defendant's earlier successful stay motion, meeting the 'person of straw' test.

Consequently, the current plaintiff was held liable for the defendant's costs of that motion.

After setting off the amounts, the plaintiff was ordered to pay the defendant net partial indemnity costs of $31,500.

The defendant moved to stay the plaintiff's construction lien actions and discharge the liens, arguing that the plaintiff corporation lacked a controlling mind after its sole director became bankrupt.

The court found that neither the bankrupt director nor a secured creditor holding a share pledge agreement had the legal authority under the Business Corporations Act to direct the litigation.

The court stayed the actions but granted a 30-day cure period for the plaintiff to rectify the corporate governance issue, and ordered the plaintiff to post $150,000 in security for costs as a precondition to lifting the stay.

The plaintiff in a construction lien action sought leave under s. 67(2) of the Construction Lien Act to bring an interlocutory motion to compel answers to refusals from a cross-examination.

The cross-examination was on an affidavit sworn in support of the defendant's pending motion for security for costs.

The Master denied leave, finding that the proposed refusals motion would not expedite the resolution of the issues and was not necessary for the fair disposition of the pending security for costs motion.

Following a decision finding a binding agreement of purchase and sale for 48 residential building lots, the successful purchaser sought costs on a substantial indemnity basis relying on a Rule 49 offer to settle.

The court awarded costs to the purchaser, applying partial indemnity rates up to the date of the offer and substantial indemnity rates thereafter.

The court reduced the claimed hourly rates to reflect appropriate percentages of full indemnity rates and deducted time spent on an unissued statement of claim, fixing total costs at $62,770.92.

The Vendor (Rolling Meadows Land Development Corporation) sought a declaration that an Agreement of Purchase and Sale for 48 residential lots was unenforceable due to uncertainty in the closing date provision.

The Purchaser (2560262 Ontario Inc.) cross-applied for a declaration that the agreement was valid, binding, and enforceable.

The court found that the closing date provision, while problematic in its original wording, was not an essential term of the contract.

The court also determined that the parties had agreed to an amendment to the closing date range, and the Vendor's subsequent attempt to declare the contract frustrated due to the amendment not being signed by an uncommunicated deadline was invalid.

The Purchaser's application was granted, and the Vendor's application was dismissed, declaring the agreement binding and enforceable as amended.