F. Souza

The self-represented plaintiff brought a motion to amend her Statement of Claim, add new party defendants, compel further documentary production, and compel additional examinations for discovery in her wrongful dismissal action.

The court found the proposed 85-page amended pleading to be replete with evidence, irrelevant arguments, and inflammatory attacks, violating the rules of pleading.

The motion was dismissed in its entirety as frivolous, scandalous, vexatious, and an abuse of process.

The parties were ordered to proceed to mediation and then examinations for discovery.

The plaintiff moved to strike the self-represented defendant's statement of defence and counterclaim due to his failure to comply with court orders, including failing to serve affidavit evidence-in-chief and refusing to answer discovery questions.

The court struck the defendant's set-off defence and counterclaim, finding he had failed to pursue them meaningfully.

However, the court declined to strike the statement of defence entirely, granting the defendant one final peremptory deadline to serve his trial evidence to allow him to defend the plaintiff's claim on its merits.

The plaintiff and defendants brought cross-motions to compel answers to undertakings, under advisements, and refusals arising from examinations for discovery in a construction dispute.

The plaintiff sought information regarding its trust claims and the defendants' set-off claim, while the defendants sought the plaintiff's pricing and cost documentation for a fixed-price contract.

The Master ordered the defendants to produce a final copy of a change directive and clarify their set-off documentation, adjourning the remaining trust questions.

The Master also ordered the plaintiff to produce documentation supporting a specific credit it had agreed to, finding that the fixed-price nature of the contract did not insulate it from producing documents related to a variation of that price.

The moving party defendant brought a motion to compel the responding party plaintiff to answer undertakings and refusals from an examination for discovery, and to re-attend to answer follow-up questions.

The court ordered the plaintiff to answer most of the contested questions, finding them relevant to the pleadings, but declined to order production of communications between counsel and experts or the experts' files, citing a lack of factual foundation for improper influence.

The plaintiff was ordered to re-attend discovery, and the moving party was awarded costs in the cause.

The plaintiff brought a motion for various procedural relief, including leave to bring the motion after setting the action down for trial, further examinations for discovery, and further documentary production.

The court granted leave under Rule 48.04(1) due to substantial amendments to the pleadings.

The court ordered further examinations of certain defendants and non-parties, and ordered the defendants to serve further and better supplementary affidavits of documents.

Timetables were set for expert reports and further motions.

Costs of the motion were awarded to the plaintiff in the cause, while costs of a prior motion were awarded to the defendants in the cause.

The court determined costs following a trial in which the plaintiff obtained judgment exceeding its earlier settlement offer.

The issues included the appropriate prejudgment interest rate, the applicable scale of costs under Rule 49.10 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, and whether the plaintiff’s claimed fees were excessive.

The court rejected the plaintiff’s request for a higher prejudgment interest rate and applied the statutory rate under the Courts of Justice Act.

Because the plaintiff obtained a judgment more favourable than its settlement offer, it was entitled to partial indemnity costs to the date of the offer and substantial indemnity costs thereafter.

The court reduced the fee component by 12% to reflect the substantial indemnity scale rather than full indemnity and fixed total fees at $50,000 plus HST, with disbursements of $5,134.16 plus HST.