Natalie Mullins

This endorsement addresses the costs of a successful motion by the plaintiffs to add new defendants and amend their Statement of Claim.

The plaintiffs sought substantial indemnity costs, arguing the motion was unnecessarily complicated by the responding parties.

The court found the plaintiffs were entitled to costs but not on a substantial indemnity basis, as there was no reprehensible conduct by the opposing parties.

The court fixed the plaintiffs' costs at $25,000, inclusive of disbursements and HST, payable jointly and severally by the responding parties within 30 days, rejecting the suggestion to reserve costs to the trial judge.

The plaintiffs brought a motion to add a new corporate defendant and several individual defendants, and to amend their Statement of Claim to increase damages to $8,000,000 and assert claims of fraud.

The plaintiffs alleged that the original defendant transferred its business and assets to the new corporate defendant to defeat the plaintiffs' claims regarding environmental contamination advice.

The court granted the motion, finding that the plaintiffs moved with sufficient dispatch upon discovering the new corporation and that the allegations were more conveniently dealt with in the present action.

Following a motion decision, the court addressed correspondence from counsel regarding the description of a costs request and the resulting costs award.

The moving defendants argued that the court had misstated their requested costs by referencing an amount calculated on an actual-rate basis rather than the lower partial indemnity amount.

The court reviewed the cost outlines and confirmed that the figure referenced in the earlier endorsement was used only as a convenient measure for reducing the successful party’s requested costs due to deficiencies in the statement of claim.

Exercising discretion under s. 131 of the Courts of Justice Act and Rule 57.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, the court declined to vary the previously fixed costs award.