Summary

37175

Paul Slansky v. Kingsland Estates Limited, et al.

(Ontario) (Civil) (By Leave)

Keywords

None.

Summary

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Civil procedure – Costs – Costs made personally payable by solicitor – Whether Young v. Young, [1993] 4 S.C.R. 3, remains good law – Whether awards of costs against a lawyer personally are available for conduct falling short of bad faith – What threshold should exist for such awards – Whether the threshold level of misconduct should be different for the decision to take a case compared to the decision to take certain procedural steps over the course of the litigation?

In 2007, before Donald Best was represented by Mr. Slansky, Mr. Best started an action for negligence and economic loss against 62 defendants, including some of the respondents. It was stayed on jurisdictional grounds, but, in the course of the proceedings, Mr. Best was held in contempt: 2010 ONSC 569. When he applied to purge his contempt, the affidavit he swore contained allegations against the opposite parties and their counsel. When those allegations were found to be baseless, Mr. Best was sentenced to 60 days in prison for contempt: 2013 ONSC 8025. After he repeated the allegations in a subsequent proceeding, an award of costs on a full indemnity scale was made against him: 2013 ONCA 695. Mr. Best unsuccessfully appealed that decision, and was denied leave to appeal further: 2014 ONCA 167. He applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Before leave was denied in that action, Mr. Best started a second action against 39 defendants with Mr. Slansky as his counsel, some of whom are respondents in this case. Their counsel asked Mr. Slansky to defer their motion on jurisdiction motion until a motion to strike was heard. Mr. Slansky refused. The motion to strike was granted and the action was dismissed as vexatious and an abuse of process, with costs on a substantial indemnity basis: 2015 ONSC 6269. The same reasons found that the jurisdiction motion was moot. Costs for it were awarded on a full indemnity basis. The respondents then moved under Rule 57.07(1)(c) of the Rules of Civil Procedure asking that Ms. Slansky be held jointly and severally liable with Mr. Best for all costs awarded in the respondents’ favour in the second action.

The motion was granted, and the Court of Appeal dismissed Mr. Slansky’s appeal.

Lower Court Rulings

October 13, 2015
Ontario Superior Court of Justice

14-0815, 2015 ONSC 6279
Costs made payable personally by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Mr. Slansky, on a joint and several basis with the plaintiff, Donald Best
June 21, 2016
Court of Appeal for Ontario

C61271, 2016 ONCA 492
Appeal dismissed
 

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