Court File and Parties

Court File No.: CV-12-109375
Date: 2013-10-30
Superior Court of Justice - Ontario

RE: ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY OF CANADA and PEMBRIDGE INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiffs

AND:

FAIRVIEW ASSESSMENT CENTRE INC., PACIFIC ASSESSMENT CENTRE INC., ALEXANDRE LOBATCH, VITALI TOURKOV, and DANNY GROSSI, Defendants

Before: THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE J.R. McCARTHY

Counsel:
J.N. Singh, for the Plaintiffs

J.P. McReynolds, for the Defendants

Heard: By written submissions

Costs Endorsement

[1] This matter came before me on August 16, 2013 as a motion to strike a pleading under Rule 21. There was mixed success on the motion. The Defendants were partially successful but the greater portion of the impugned amended pleading survived the motion. However, the motion originally targeted the first Statement of Claim. The claim was amended by the Plaintiffs in response to that motion and, one must assume, as a partial answer to it. Rather than abandoning its motion and seeking its costs thrown away, the Defendants persisted in its attack on the new pleading.

[2] Therefore, the initial launching of the motion was not unreasonable. Nor was the ultimate outcome for the Defendant wholly unsuccessful. I am not persuaded that there is any abuse of process or res judicata because similar type motions have been brought in other actions with comparable fact scenarios. Every claim and pleading stands on its own. If actions have a question of law or fact in common or arise out of the same occurrence or series of occurrences, any party is at liberty to seek consolidation.

[3] Having considered all of the circumstances, I order that the parties shall bear their own costs of the motion.

McCARTHY J.

Date: October 30, 2013