Court File and Parties

Court File No.: 9140/08 Date: 2019-01-30 Superior Court of Justice – Ontario

Re: Pollard Windows Inc, plaintiff, moving party And: 1736106 Ontario Inc., Andrew Ferri, Niagara Home Builders Inc. c.o.b. as Niagara Heritage Homes and Steveco Enterprises Inc., defendants And: 1746878 Ontario Inc., responding party

Before: Mr Justice Ramsay

Counsel: Santiago Costa and Geoff Daley for Pollard Kris Hutton for 1746878

Endorsement

[1] The plaintiff seeks costs of proceedings that culminated in a motion to determine priority between creditors following a judicial sale: 2018 ONSC 7567.

[2] Much of the history of the proceedings is set out in my endorsement of March 21, 2018: 2018 ONSC 1924. The plaintiff seeks full indemnity of $160,422.70, which does not include previous costs awarded or costs of proceedings in five interlocutory appeals to the Divisional Court and a motion to stay the finding of contempt of March 21, 2018.

[3] Recognizing the cost of litigation, the plaintiffs offered to settle for $25,000 on March 13, 2017. The offer remained open until the commencement of the priority hearing. The plaintiff won more than it would have settled for. It got priority over the mortgagee from the proceeds of sale of the house plus costs.

[4] The amount sought out of proportion to the debt owing which at one point was $10,000, but it is the defendants and the responding party who are to blame. Essentially, Andrew Ferri, who is behind everything, intentionally made it as expensive as possible for the plaintiffs to collect a simple debt, to which there was no legitimate defence. A combination of deceit, frivolous arguments and repetitive proceedings would have worn out most plaintiffs. There was also some out and out contempt of court, but 1746878 Ontario Inc. has been punished for that.

[5] In the rare circumstances of this case I find the responding party’s conduct to be particularly egregious. I award full indemnity to the plaintiff. I consider an amount that may have been contemplated to be $150,000 in addition to costs already awarded and I order 1746878 to pay that amount to the plaintiff forthwith.

J.A. Ramsay J.

Date: 2019-01-30