Saumur v. Antoniak, 2015 ONSC 3674
ONTARIO
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE
BETWEEN:
Dean Saumur by his litigation guardian Janet Saumur and the said Janet Saumur
Mr Robert Hooper for the plaintiffs
Plaintiffs
– and –
Luba Antoniak, Lester Antoniak and the City of Hamilton
Defendants
Ms J. Hunter for the City of Hamilton
Mr Justice Ramsay
1The plaintiffs seek costs of this action for negligence [2015 ONSC 2380] fixed at $660,000 all inclusive. The defendant City of Hamilton submits that an appropriate award would fix costs at $220,000 plus GST or HST, as applicable, plus disbursements of $118,400.56 including tax. After a trial that lasted nine days, the defendants were found liable for the main plaintiff’s injuries and no contributory negligence was attributed to him. The damages were agreed to be about $7.85 million, of which the plaintiffs received $1,000,000 in 2005, when they settled with the Antoniak defendants.
2The amount claimed is proportionate to the amount at stake. The following circumstances are important:
a. The plaintiffs received about $257,000 for costs up to October 1, 2005 at the time of the settlement with the Antoniaks;
b. Since there was a change of lawyers since then, some of the preparation work done for the plaintiffs necessarily involved duplication of effort;
c. The plaintiffs made an offer to settle under Rule 49 on March 12, 2015, and did better than they offered;
d. This was an expensive action to prosecute; and
e. There is nothing to criticize in the conduct of the defendants.
3I accept that the plaintiffs should have partial indemnity for costs from October 1, 2005 to March 12, 2015 and substantial indemnity thereafter. I think that $400,000, all inclusive, would reasonably have been contemplated and I order the City to pay the plaintiffs’ costs in that amount.
J.A. Ramsay J.