Peter A. Hertz

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.

The applicant property owner sought a mandatory injunction requiring the respondent municipality to remove a watermain that had been installed on its property in 1979 or 1980.

The municipality brought a cross-application seeking a declaration that it had acquired a prescriptive easement over the land.

The court found that the municipality had established continuous, uninterrupted, open, and peaceful use of the land for the watermain for over 20 years prior to the property's conversion to the Land Titles system, without permission from or objection by the property owners.

The court granted the municipality a prescriptive easement and dismissed the property owner's application for removal.

The plaintiff abandoned its motion for an interlocutory injunction after nearly two years.

The defendants sought costs of the abandoned motion on a substantial indemnity scale, payable forthwith.

The court held that, absent extraordinary circumstances, costs of an abandoned injunction motion are payable forthwith.

Finding no reprehensible conduct by the plaintiff, the court awarded costs on a partial indemnity scale, fixing them at $65,908.61 for the Racer Defendants and $22,713.82 for the Standard Defendants.

The Waterloo Region District School Board appealed an Ontario Municipal Board decision awarding interest to Erbsville Road Development Inc. on expropriated land from the date of draft subdivision approval, rather than the later date of actual expropriation.

The Divisional Court dismissed the appeal, holding that under s. 33(1) of the Expropriations Act, interest can accrue from a date preceding expropriation when the owner ceases to make productive use of the land due to the impending expropriation.

The court found the board member's determination that productive use ceased upon draft approval was reasonable.

The appellant appealed a sentence imposed for failing to comply with a Property Standards Order issued under the Building Code Act.

The appellant was convicted of non-compliance with an order requiring repairs to a residential property by August 15, 2012.

The sentencing judge imposed a $2,000 fine and six-month probation order.

The appellant challenged the sentence on grounds that evidence from her husband was improperly excluded and that certain factual findings were erroneous.

The appellate court upheld the sentence, finding it fit and proportionate within the acceptable range for the offence.