William Richardson

The appellants appealed a Master's decision allowing the respondents' action for copyright infringement to proceed following a status hearing under Rule 48.14.

The appellants argued the Master erred in law by only considering prejudice that accrued during the period of delay for which the respondents were at fault, and in finding no non-compensable prejudice.

The Superior Court dismissed the appeal, finding the Master applied the correct test, properly accepted ongoing settlement discussions as a reasonable explanation for much of the delay, and correctly limited the prejudice analysis to the period of blameworthy delay.

The plaintiffs brought a motion to amend their statement of claim to add a corporate defendant, retain a placeholder defendant, and delete certain words.

The defendants brought a cross-motion to strike the statement of claim for disclosing no reasonable cause of action.

The court granted the plaintiffs' motion to amend, finding that the addition of the corporate defendant was a correction of a misnomer rather than the addition of a new party after the expiry of the limitation period.

The court dismissed the defendants' motion to strike, concluding it was not plain and obvious that the plaintiffs lacked capacity to sue or that their claims for breach of contract, breach of confidence, unjust enrichment, and breach of fiduciary duty would fail.