H. Cohen

The defendants brought a motion for security for costs against the plaintiff, a Malaysian citizen and former international student at the University of Toronto.

The plaintiff sued the defendants for defamation regarding allegations of sexual harassment.

The court found that the plaintiff was ordinarily resident outside of Ontario, as he had no family, property, or ongoing employment in the province and spent most of his time in Malaysia.

Applying a holistic approach, the court ordered the plaintiff to post $20,000 in security for costs.

Following earlier reasons granting relief in a complex commercial dispute, the successful applicants sought substantial indemnity costs exceeding $428,000.

The respondents argued that prior settlement offers justified limiting costs to partial indemnity and challenged the hourly rates used in calculating substantial indemnity costs.

The court held that the settlement offers did not meet the requirements of Rule 49 and were not genuine offers capable of affecting costs.

Given findings of deceitful and fraudulent conduct by the respondents and failure to comply with court‑ordered accounting, substantial indemnity costs were warranted.

Applying proportionality principles and reviewing the bill of costs, the court found the hours and rates reasonable and awarded the full amount claimed.

The applicants and respondents entered into joint venture agreements to invest in commercial real estate projects through jointly owned companies.

The applicants discovered that the respondents were commingling funds, failing to make their required equity contributions, and diverting the applicants' funds to their own personal benefit and to companies they solely owned.

The court found that the respondents breached their contractual and fiduciary duties and were unjustly enriched.

The court imposed constructive trusts over several properties owned by the respondents, appointed a receiver over the respondents' assets, and cancelled the respondents' shares in the jointly owned companies where they had not contributed equity.