Court File and Parties
COURT FILE NO.: C-403-13 DATE: 2019-05-14 ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE
BETWEEN:
Manish Gupta, 2357030 Ontario Inc. and EB Investments Inc. Plaintiffs – and – 2075750 Ontario Inc. and Re/Max Capital Inc. Defendants
Counsel: Manish Gupta – Self counsel for himself and 2357030 Ontario Inc. Amandeep Sidhu - Counsel for the EB Investments Inc. John Adair - Counsel for the Defendant 2075750 Ontario Inc.
HEARD: April 25 & 26, 2019
The Honourable Justice James W. Sloan
Costs
[1] I have reviewed the parties’ submissions with respect to costs, the case law referred to and Rule 57.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure.
[2] Based, particularly on Rule 57.01(e) & (f)(i), along with my findings, this case cries out for costs to be assessed on a substantial indemnity basis.
[3] As part of their reply, the plaintiffs suggested that the 207’s costs should be reduced because it failed to make a formal offer to settle. The court finds that to be a very unusual submission to put forward on the facts of this case.
[4] Part of the mischief that the Rules on document production are designed to protect against, is a party attempting to settle a matter before it has produced all of the information the other party is entitled to.
[5] There is certainly a possibility that 207 could have made an unfortunate settlement, if it was premised on information that did not include the subject emails.
[6] The hours expended and the charge out rates by 207’s lawyers are within the amount one would expect for lawyers practising within the GTA. I draw a negative inference from the fact that the plaintiffs did not produce their bill of costs for the action and therefore conclude that their costs would have been similar to those submitted by 207.
[7] I therefore allow 207 partial indemnity costs for the time charged under the heading Pleadings and productions and substantial indemnity costs thereafter.
[8] This works out to $113,705 for fees, plus HST and disbursements for a total of $135,221.65.
Justice James W. Sloan
Released: May 14, 2019