In Aware Ads Inc. v. Walker 2022 ONSC 6121 , Justice Centa assessed costs in an action where the Plaintiff former employer was suing the Defendants ex employee and the new employer seeking to prevent Walker from joining the Plaintiff’s competitor.
Costs were awarded on an elevated scale for the following reasons:
1.No basis or reasonable grounds to bring the motion ;
2.It failed to demonstrate a strong prima facie case to support its serious allegations;
3.The Plaintiff initially sought extraordinarily broad relief, such as a Mareva and Mills order, a CPL, and discovery aid of injunction and inspection order. It withdrew these reliefs only after delivering its factum. It then revised the relief sought several times thereafter.
4.The relief sought was viewed as an effort to “punish” the Defendant instead of protecting legitimate business interest.
5.For one of the Defendants, it completely abandoned all relief sought after putting him through significant expense and time.
It is important to note that the Plaintiff had previously sought an interim injunction along the same lines , which was also dismissed. They then tried to get a second kick of the can by way of this interlocutory injunction and failed miserably.
Quere: Will they still proceed to trial to seek a permanent injunction after having to pay almost half a million dollars in costs ?
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