Bryan McPhadden

In a proposed class action against a religious organization regarding alleged child sexual abuse, the defendant brought a motion to strike portions of two affidavits filed by the plaintiffs for the certification motion.

The court struck paragraphs from one affidavit that referenced foreign inquiries into the organization, finding them irrelevant and prejudicial.

The court declined to strike a paragraph from the second affidavit, finding it relevant to the proceedings.

The defendants brought a motion to strike portions of the plaintiff's affidavit filed in support of an upcoming summary judgment motion, arguing the statements were hearsay and failed to state the source of information and belief as required by Rule 39.01(4).

The plaintiff argued the sources were discernible from the exhibits attached to the affidavit.

The court declined to strike the statements, provided the plaintiff files a supplementary affidavit within 10 days explicitly stating the sources.

The defendants were awarded costs of $3,600 as the motion could have been avoided had the plaintiff provided the sources when requested.

The plaintiff brought a motion to finalize the terms of a certification order for settlement purposes and to set a timetable for a settlement approval hearing.

A non-settling defendant, Canderm Pharma Inc., objected to the form of the order, identifying several clerical errors.

The court agreed that the errors should be corrected before the order was issued, despite the plaintiff's concern about maintaining parallel language with a British Columbia order.

The court finalized the terms, set the timetable, and declined to award costs to any party.

Following a motion regarding the pre-certification production of medical records where the responding party (plaintiffs) was largely successful, the parties submitted costs submissions.

The plaintiffs sought $13,368 on a partial indemnity basis, while the defendants argued for costs in the cause or a maximum of $3,500.

The court found the plaintiffs were entitled to partial indemnity costs but reduced the claimed amount to comply with the Rules Committee's Grid for hourly rates and to account for excessive disbursement claims.

Recognizing the plaintiffs were largely but not entirely successful, the court fixed costs at $6,800 all-inclusive.

In a proposed pharmaceutical class proceeding alleging that anti-psychotic medications caused gynecomastia and that the defendants failed to warn of that risk, the moving defendants sought pre-certification production of broad medical and pharmacy records for five affiants.

The court held that pre-certification medical production must be limited to records bearing on certification issues and rejected any request that effectively sought entire medical files.

It confirmed production of records relating to prescriptions, ingestion, development of gynecomastia, related risk or warning discussions, and related surgeries.

The court refused on the present record to compel further diagnosis and treatment records aimed at individual causation or vague assertions about commonality and preferability, but left the issue open for renewal on cross-examination.