Craig Bater

Following a motion to consolidate 48 actions where the moving defendants were largely successful but the plaintiff successfully resisted consolidation of one action, the court determined costs.

Considering the divided success and a reasonable settlement offer made by the plaintiff, the court ordered the moving defendants to pay partial indemnity costs of $7,500 to the plaintiff and $5,522.91 to the successful co-defendant, Boston Pizza.

The plaintiff commenced 48 separate actions (38 in Superior Court, 10 in Small Claims Court) relating to various loan transactions, primarily alleging negligence and breach of fiduciary duty against its former lawyers.

The defendant lawyers brought a motion to consolidate the actions.

The court ordered that 37 of the Superior Court actions be consolidated into a single action to avoid multiplicity of proceedings and reduce costs.

The 10 Small Claims Court actions were also consolidated and ordered to be transferred and tried together with the Superior Court action.

All actions were ordered to be case managed.

On the return of a civil contempt motion, the plaintiff sought incarceration after the defendant failed to purge an earlier contempt finding by providing complete answers to undertakings.

The court found the defendant continued to mislead the court through repackaged, redacted, and unreliable documents and had not purged his contempt.

Applying the established principles governing civil contempt sentencing, the court held that a further custodial sanction was unnecessary given the prior striking of the defence, partial judgment, and earlier costs award.

The court instead imposed a $7,500 fine, authorized further tracing steps through signed authorizations, and awarded substantial indemnity costs of $12,000.

Following a finding of contempt and a motion to strike the defence, the successful party sought full indemnity costs exceeding $67,000.

The court considered the aggravating factors under Rule 57.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure and the conduct of the responding party, including findings that the responding party had deliberately misled the court and bankruptcy officials.

The court held that the contempt finding justified costs on a higher scale, namely substantial indemnity.

However, the court reduced the amount claimed to account for prior cost awards and some duplication related to a previous motion to lift a stay of proceedings.

Costs were fixed at $50,000 inclusive of HST and disbursements.