SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE – ONTARIO
COURT FILE NO.: FS-13-4461-00
DATE: 2015-08-13
RE: JOSEPH CHARLES YVON BOUDREAU v. MARTA SZABO-BOUDREAU
BEFORE: Lemon, J.
COUNSEL: Howard Wright, Counsel for the Applicant
Julie Layne, Counsel for the Respondent
COSTS E N D O R S E M E N T
[1] On July 7, 2015, I granted Ms. Szabo-Boudreau’s request to allow her to fly to Hungary with the parties’ children without the consent of Mr. Boudreau. I then ordered:
If the parties cannot agree upon costs, written submissions shall be made to me. Ms. Szabo-Boudreau shall provide her costs submissions within the next 15 days and Mr. Boudreau shall provide his responding submissions within 15 days thereafter. There shall be no reply material unless I request it. Each submission shall be no more than three pages not including any offers to settle or bills of costs.
[2] Ms. Szabo-Boudreau seeks costs in the amount of $5,573.65. Mr. Boudreau submits that there should be no costs ordered or, alternatively, they should be fixed in the amount of $1,000.
Legal Authorities
[3] The Family Law Rules provide the following with respect to an award of costs:
- (1) There is a presumption that a successful party is entitled to the costs of a motion, enforcement, case or appeal.
(11) A person setting the amount of costs shall consider,
(a) the importance, complexity or difficulty of the issues;
(b) the reasonableness or unreasonableness of each party’s behaviour in the case;
(c) the lawyer’s rates;
(d) the time properly spent on the case, including conversations between the lawyer and the party or witnesses, drafting documents and correspondence, attempts to settle, preparation, hearing, argument, and preparation and signature of the order;
(e) expenses properly paid or payable; and
(f) any other relevant matter.
[4] Costs rules are designed to foster three fundamental purposes:
(a) to partially indemnify successful litigants for the cost of litigation;
(b) to encourage settlement; and
(c) to discourage and sanction inappropriate behaviour by litigants.
(See: Phuong v. Chan 1999 2052 (O.N.C.A.) 1999 46 O.R. (3d) 330.)
[5] Costs awards, at the end of the day, should reflect “what the court views as a fair and reasonable amount that should be paid by the unsuccessful parties”: see Boucher v. Public Accountants Council for the Province of Ontario, 2004 14579 (C.A.), 71 O.R. (3d) 291, at para. 24.
Analysis
(a) Result
[6] Ms. Szabo-Boudreau has been successful and is presumptively entitled to her costs. She was, however, unsuccessful on the issue of requiring Mr. Boudreau to pay for an increase in the ticket price.
(b) The Rates Charged and Hours Spent
[7] The file was transferred from senior counsel to junior counsel at a much reduced rate. That is appropriate. While there is some time that appears excessive, the hourly rate is lower than one might expect.
(c) Amount of Costs that an unsuccessful Party could reasonably expect
[8] Both parties were represented by competent counsel. There is nothing to suggest that the requested figure is out of the usual range.
(d) Complexity of the Proceedings
[9] This was a straightforward issue and took little time to argue.
(e) Importance of the Issues
[10] This was extremely important to both of the litigants as well as the children.
(f) Conduct of the Parties
[11] The mother made an offer. It was not outstanding at the time of the motion, however, it can be contrasted with no offer from Mr. Boudreau. On the other hand, this was an issue that was not easily resolved without a court order.
[12] On the evidence provided, I did not find, one way or the other, if Mr. Boudreau was insincere in his concerns. On that basis, I can find no bad faith to increase the costs.
Result
[13] In the end result, I order costs in the amount of $2,500 to be paid forthwith upon the return of Ms. Szabo-Boudreau.
Lemon, J.
DATE: August 13, 2015
COURT FILE NO.: FS-13-4461-00
DATE: 2015-08-13
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE – ONTARIO
RE: JOSEPH CHARLES YVON BOUDREAU v. MARTA SZABO-BOUDREAU
BEFORE: Lemon, J
COUNSEL: Howard Wright, Counsel for the Applicant
Julie Layne, Counsel for the Respondent
COSTS ENDORSEMENT
Lemon, J.
DATE: August 13, 2015