Court File and Parties
CITATION: Letestu v. Ritlyn, 2016 ONSC 6922
COURT FILE NO.: 11-32093
DATE: 2016/11/07
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE – ONTARIO
RE: The Estate of Armand Letestu Deceased by its Litigation Administrator, Christopher Letestu - Plaintiff
AND:
Ritlyn Investments Limited - Defendant
BEFORE: James W. Sloan
COUNSEL: Joel P. McCoy - Counsel, for the Plaintiff
Kieran C. Dickson & Kenneth J. Raddatz - Counsel, for the Defendant
HEARD: September 30, 2016
Costs ENDORSEMENT
[1] This matter was dismissed on an unusual jurisdictional issue.
[2] Unfortunately neither party contemplated the jurisdictional issue until sometime in just before or at the pretrial hearing.
[3] Once the issue was raised the pretrial judge ordered that the issue of jurisdiction should be resolved on a long motion rather than at a trial.
[4] The defendant now seeks partial indemnity costs in the amount of $42,500.
[5] These costs include the defendant’s costs from the filing of its statement of defence in June or July 2012 and include productions, examinations for discovery and two pre-trials along with preparation for trial which was scheduled to begin almost immediately following the 2nd pretrial.
[6] If the defendant had raised the jurisdictional issue and brought a motion at the start of the litigation the cost to both parties would have been modest by comparison to what the defendant now seeks.
[7] Since the defendant was successful in having the action dismissed on a jurisdictional issue which could have been raised much earlier in the proceedings I am not prepared to award costs for approximately five years litigation.
[8] Under all the circumstances of this case, I fix the defendant’s costs $7,500 inclusive of HST and disbursements.
Justice James W. Sloan
Date: November 7, 2016