Court File and Parties
Court File No.: 327/06
Released: 20080214
ONTARIO
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE
DIVISIONAL COURT
Re: ABDOULRAB et al., Applicants
-and-
ONTARIO LABOUR RELATIONS BOARD et al., Respondents
Before: Lane, Swinton and Bryant JJ.
Counsel: Elisabeth Bruckmann and Avy Yao-Yao Go for the Applicants Brian Blumenthal for the Director of Employment Standards Clifton P. Prophet for Novaquest et al.
Heard at Toronto: By written submissions
COSTS ENDORSEMENT
[1] The corporate respondents, Novaquest Finishing Inc., Catalectric Inc. and 40764186 Canada Inc., seek costs of the application for judicial review in the amount of $32,950.29 on a partial indemnity basis, including disbursements of $4,044.18. They seek these costs from both the individual applicants and the respondent Ministry of Labour.
[2] The applicants were represented by two community legal clinics, which are part of Legal Aid Ontario. They submit that there should be no costs of the proceeding, as the application raised an issue of public interest.
[3] This application concerned the interpretation of the related employer provisions of the Employment Standards Act in the context of the bankruptcy of the applicants’ former employer Catelectric Dip.
[4] In our view, despite the success of the corporate respondents, this is not an appropriate case to award costs against the applicants. They are individuals of limited means, who brought the application in good faith to enforce their rights under protective legislation. While the application was brought to assert their own claims to termination and severance pay, there was, nevertheless, a public interest element to the litigation, as it raised an issue of importance for other vulnerable employees in the province. The public interest nature of the litigation is also demonstrated by the participation of the Director of Employment Standards, who appeared as a respondent on this application.
[5] Therefore, there will be no order as to costs.
Lane J.
Swinton J.
Bryant J.
Released: February 14, 2008