Juneja v. Samra, 2016 ONSC 6928

Court File and Parties

Citation: Juneja v. Samra, 2016 ONSC 6928 Newmarket Court File No.: CV-12-112469-A1 Date: 2016-11-09 Superior Court of Justice - Ontario

Re: Gurdeep Juneja, Plaintiff And: Daljit Kaur Samra, Defendant And: Raminder K. Kanwar and Tarlochan S. Kanwar, Third Parties

Before: The Hon. Madam Justice S.E. Healey

Counsel: D. Romaine, for the Plaintiff B. Lee and J. Anand, for the Defendant N. Mester, for Third Parties

Heard: By Written Submissions

Costs Endorsement

1This cost endorsement relates to the costs of a summary judgment motion determined in favour of the moving parties, the third parties (Juneja v. Samra, 2016 ONSC 5502).

2The defendant Samra and the third parties have reached an agreement regarding costs. The plaintiff seeks costs of preparation and attendance at the argument of the motion in the amount of $2,815.00, payable by the defendant.

3Although wide latitude was given to plaintiff’s counsel at the hearing to file material and make submissions with respect to the motion in order to protect the plaintiff’s position, for the purpose of determining costs I am not inclined to include all of the time and disbursements of plaintiff’s counsel. The reasons for this is that no satisfactory explanation was provided for the late service of the plaintiff’s material, plaintiff’s counsel did not participate in creating the timetable to schedule procedural steps leading up to the motion, and did not comply with the timetable agreed upon by the other parties. Further, the plaintiff’s interests were protected primarily through the success of the third parties’ motion. As a result of the motion being granted, it rendered moot the defendant’s proposed motion to amend, which was the primary reason for the participation of the plaintiff on this motion. The complexity of the proceeding was mainly caused by the late reaction of plaintiff’s counsel, creating procedural difficulties for defendant’s counsel and challenges for the court in balancing the fairness to all parties.

4Taking these facts into account, a reduced cost award associated with attending the motion only will be awarded. The time for attendance was not particularized in the plaintiff’s material. Estimating that time to be three hours, at a partial indemnity rate of $225.00, the costs awarded to the plaintiff are $763.00 inclusive of HST.

5This court orders that the defendant will pay the plaintiff costs of the motion fixed in the amount of $763.00 inclusive.