Legal Blog

Interim Motion to Strike

Koon v LPIC 2019 Ont SCJ

A lawyer who had been held to have been negligent, continued her fight with LPIC regarding that finding. She brought a motion to set aside previous arbitral and court decisions that upheld her liability to LPIC. In that motion, she continued to make disparaging remarks about LPIC’s counsel. LPIC brought a motion to strike paragraphs in her affidavit. The Master noted that an attack on an affidavit in support of a motion should not normally be brought by way of motion before the main motion, but only at the hearing of the main motion itself. Here however, the fraud and unprofessional conduct allegations resulted in a successful motion to strike for abuse of process. The Master initially awarded $6,198 for substantial indemnity costs. However, when the lawyer reminded her that she needed to be granted the ability to make submissions on costs, the Master agreed. After submissions, the Master ordered $6,800 in costs to compensate LPIC for responding to the lawyer’s costs submissions.

Written by Jonathan Speigel, the founding partner of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP, leads the litigation and construction practices.