Following a successful appeal in an estate litigation matter, the appellants sought costs for both the motion below and the appeal.
The Court of Appeal awarded the appellants their full requested costs for the motion below, totaling approximately $319,000, noting these were less than the costs originally awarded to the respondents.
For the appeal, the court awarded partial indemnity costs of $100,000 and $75,000 to the respective appellants.
The court rejected the argument that the issues were sufficiently novel to depart from the normal costs rules, and held that the public policy considerations for a blended costs award payable from the estate were not engaged.
