Gregory W. Banks

At a case conference, the court addressed ongoing procedural delays and tactical gamesmanship between the parties.

The defendants sought to bring a contempt motion for the plaintiffs' failure to comply with an order to answer undertakings, while the plaintiffs sought a cross-motion for security for costs.

Relying on the culture shift mandated by Hryniak and the powers under Rule 50.13, the court declined to schedule formal motions and instead made summary orders directing the plaintiffs to comply with the prior order, produce physical flooring samples in Toronto for inspection, and file corrected pleadings.

Following an appeal where the appellants achieved divided success, the court tentatively awarded the appellants $5,000 in costs.

The respondents sought to reverse this tentative decision based on an offer to settle, which proposed dismissing the appeal without costs.

The court found the offer to settle was not relevant to the disposition of costs, as the appellants achieved a better result than the offer.

The court increased the costs awarded to the appellants to $7,500 due to the additional time and effort required to respond to the respondents' submissions.