ONTARIO

SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE

COURT FILE NO: C-252-14
DATE: 2014-12-19

BETWEEN:

2300246 Ontario Limited
Applicant

– and –

Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
Respondent

Alan S. Cofman - Counsel for the Applicant

Sunil Mathai and Meagan Williams - Counsel for the Respondent

THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE J.W. SLOAN

COSTS

[1] The applicant seeks costs for three attendances before this court, two attendances before myself on three different days and one attendance before Justice Broad.

[2] Even though costs were not specifically dealt with on the March 14, 2014 attendance before myself, or for the April 24 attendance before Justice Broad they were certainly necessary parts of this litigation and in my opinion the winning party is therefore entitled to some costs.

[3] The attendance on March 14, 2014 was in my opinion unnecessary. From the point of view of the Ministry this was not an urgent matter and I find it unsettling that the Ministry would not agree to hold their Notices of Prohibition in abeyance based on an agreeable timetable to have the matter heard in an orderly fashion by this court.

[4] In the normal course I would have awarded substantial indemnity costs to express my disapproval of how the first hearing was handled. Unfortunately the bill of costs I have is not broken down by hearing.

[5] I would award partial indemnity costs for the remainder of the bill. I note Mr. Cofman, the main solicitor on the file, uses a billable rate of $365 per hour. My rule of thumb for partial indemnity costs is 65% which in this case would be $237.25 per hour.

[6] I find the number of hours spent by Mr. Kaufman in item 2 for researching etc. somewhat high and I reduce it to 70 hours. Therefore, based on an hourly rate of $237.25 fees on a partial indemnity basis, Mr. Cofman’s charge for item 2 would be $16,607. This is $2,518 less than claimed.

[7] I find all other fees and disbursements claims to be generally in line for this type of hearing.

[8] I therefore allow the plaintiff its costs requested less the amount set out in paragraph 6 plus HST which comes to $2,845.34.

[9] Costs are therefore allowed at $45,076.33 inclusive of disbursements and HST. ($43,989.77 plus $3931.90 minus $2845.34)

J. W. Sloan

Released: December 19, 2014