Stephen Appotive

The defendant Ministry of the Environment moved to strike the plaintiff's negligence claim arising from an oil spill clean-up, arguing it owed no private law duty of care.

The court dismissed the motion, finding that once the Ministry chose to exercise its discretionary powers under the Environmental Protection Act and became involved in the remediation, it was obliged to do so without negligence.

The court held that the pleaded facts established sufficient proximity under the Anns test and that no policy reasons negated a duty of care at the pleadings stage.

Following settlement of a serious personal injury action at the defendant's policy limits, the parties asked the court to fix costs on a partial indemnity basis.

The plaintiffs sought substantially higher costs based in part on a percentage-of-recovery approach, while the defendant argued for a lower figure based on estimated hours and disputed disbursements.

The court held the settlement agreement required a Rule 57 partial indemnity assessment rather than a percentage-of-settlement methodology.

Applying those factors, the court fixed fees at $70,000 and accepted the defendant's position on disbursements in the absence of reply submissions, assessing total costs at $87,075 plus HST.

The applicant sought court assistance to compel financial disclosure from corporations associated with the respondent within the context of a family law arbitration.

The arbitrator had previously ordered disclosure but concluded the respondent had not fully complied and lacked jurisdiction to compel production from non-party corporations.

The court ordered the respondents to produce the information listed in an exhibit and required the applicant to execute a confidentiality agreement covering all disclosed materials.

The court upheld the arbitrator’s direction that the respondent bear the costs of locating and compiling disclosure while the applicant would pay photocopying at the Legal Aid rate.

The applicant was found substantially successful and awarded partial costs of the motion.