ONTARIO

SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE

COURT FILE NO.: C-710-10
DATE: 2015Sep17

BETWEEN:

Tajdin Abdulla
Plaintiff

– and –

Canadian Solar Inc., Shawn Xiaohua Qu and Arthur Chien
Defendants

Dimitri Lascaris, Douglas Worndl and Anthony O’Brien,
for the Plaintiff

Bryan Finlay, Michael. Statham and Anastasija Sumakova,
for the Defendants

Justice J.C. Kent

Costs Endorsement

BACKGROUND

[1] By an Endorsement made 26 June 2015, this court dismissed the motion of the defendants who sought leave to appeal orders made by Mr. Justice Taylor dated 9 September 2014 and 5 January 2015. The orders were made in the context of a proceeding under the Class Proceedings Act. The entirely successful plaintiff seeks costs totalling $30,302.95 inclusive of fees, disbursements and taxes, on a partial indemnity basis.

CONSIDERATIONS

[2] This is a very complex class action. The motion before the court was made in writing in accordance with the current Rules of Civil Procedure. The facta filed by counsel totalled well in excess of 100 pages.

[3] In any class proceeding, there is always much at stake for all involved. This proceeding appears to be no exception. Costs awards already made to date in this proceeding are now in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[4] It is reasonable, in view of the foregoing, to expect that any steps taken by any party will be seriously contested. Counsel for the unsuccessful defendants candidly acknowledge in their submission on costs that had their motion succeeded they would have sought costs exceeding $35,000.00 on a partial indemnity basis.

[5] Counsel for the defendants argue that the plaintiffs should not be allowed costs to the extent that they have claimed them. The time spent, however, is not inordinate in the circumstances.

[6] Counsel for the unsuccessful defendants also argue for a partial disallowance for the disbursement of photocopying. It does appear that there may well have been some unnecessary copies of the motion record, the respondent’s factum and the respondent’s brief of authorities produced by the plaintiff’s counsel. Therefore, a reduction of $1,000.00 is made in the disbursements total.

HOURLY RATES

[7] I am aware that many of my colleagues would not find the partial indemnity hourly rates of counsel to be too high. To me, however, they appear so. I am unable to allow even counsel with considerable experience as much as $300 per hour on a partial indemnity basis. Those with less experience should not expect more than $150 to $200 on a partial indemnity basis.

RESULT

[8] For all of the foregoing reasons, I have concluded that the successful plaintiff’s costs should be fixed in the amount of $16,850.00 for fees and $2.036.77 for disbursements plus tax, payable by the defendants within 30 days.

[9] Order accordingly.

Kent, J.

Released: September 17, 2015