Iac Limited and Seaspan International Ltd.
(Plaintiffs)
v.
The ship Seiten Maru, Sumitomo Trust and
Banking Company, Itoh-Chu K.K. (Kobe) and
Metropolitan Trading Ltd. (Defendants)
Trial Division, Sheppard D.J.—Vancouver,
November 5, 1973.
Costs—Taxation—Action for unstated damages—Whether
Class II or Class III proceeding--Tariff B, Rule 2(1)(a)—
Tariff A, Rule 1(3)(b).
REVIEW of taxation of costs.
COUNSEL:
B. R. Henderson for plaintiffs.
B. Lee for defendants.
SOLICITORS:
Bull, Housser and Tupper, Vancouver, for
plaintiffs .
Campney and Murphy, Vancouver, for
defendants.
SHEPPARD D.J.—This is an application by the
defendants, the ship Seiten Maru, Sumitomo
Trust and Banking Company and Itoh-Chu K.K.
(Kobe), for a review of the taxation held before
the Prothonotary, on the grounds:
1) as to whether Class II or III applied to this
taxation;
2) as to whether Tariff B, Rule 2(1)(a) pro
vided for each step in the action or for all the
services in the action other than those specifi
cally mentioned thereafter.
The judgment of the Prothonotary is correct,
and therefore the motion by appeal therefrom
will be refused. As to whether there applies
Class II or Class III in Tariff B, Rule 2(1)(a),
this matter is settled by Tariff A, Rule 1(3)(b)
which states:
where a step is a step in a proceeding that is, or was in its
inception, an appeal to the Trial Division or any other
proceeding in the Trial Division where no judgment is being
sought for payment of an ascertained amount, it shall be
classified as a Class II step;
It follows therefrom that Class II applies
where in an action a judgment is sought for
unstated damages.
The rule of ejusdem generis does not apply in
Tariff A, Rule 1(3)(b) to the words "an appeal
to the Trial Division or any other proceeding".
Such application is excluded by the fact that the
Rules deal with action; hence a "proceeding"
completely and not subordinate to or limited by
the words "an appeal to the Trial Division".
As to the second ground of appeal, Tariff B,
Rule 2(1)(a) must include "all services" which
will include all steps other than examination for
discovery, or other steps specifically mentioned
in Tariff B. The amount provided for in Tariff
B, Rule 2(1)(a), Class II, $75.00, cannot be
applied to each step, as the Rule provides that
such fee is compensation for "all services" in a
proceeding and not for each step.
The motion by way of appeal is therefore
dismissed with costs payable by the defendants,
the ship Seiten Maru, Sumitomo Trust and
Banking Company and Itoh-Chu K.K. (Kobe).
You are being directed to the most recent version of the statute which may not be the version considered at the time of the judgment.