Assessment of Costs From A Self-Represented Respondent
Neugebauer v. Labieniec, 2010 FC 68 (Parent, Assessment Officer)

January 21, 2010

Jill Daley and Jordanna Sanft for the Applicant, Henry Neugebauer
Anna M. Labieniec self-represented, for the Respondent, Anna M. Labieniec

The present decision is the assessment of costs following the judgment rendered by Justice Simpson on June 25, 2009 rejecting the Applicant’s application to expunge a registration of copyright in connection with a literary work in the Polish language entitled Gesi puch.  The Respondent was granted “her costs, in the amount of $3,000.00 for her time plus reasonable disbursements and party and party costs associated with any counsel retained to assist with this application”.

The Assessment Officer on file, Johanne Parent, considered that since the Respondent was a self-represented litigant, the new submissions and material introduced before her at the rebuttal stage ought to be considered. The Assessment Officer reiterated that, any pre-trial order that is silent as to the costs should be interpreted as meaning without costs to any party. 

The Respondent claimed $19,694.93 for the services of counsel. The Applicant opposed such claim based on the interpretation of the expression “retained to assist” found in Justice Simpson’s judgment. The Applicant argued that respondent’s counsel services could only be considered for his official appearance on the Court file, i.e. 7 days. Although the Assessment Officer agreed with the Respondent that her counsel had assisted for more than his official appearance, she was unable to find evidence of services covered by Tariff B. She however granted two units to cover assistance with settlement negotiations in order to encourage such efforts.

Further, the Respondent claimed $540.00 for time spent by different individuals who prepared affidavits. This claim was however denied since there was no evidence that any counsel was involved in assisting in preparing such affidavits. In addition, the Respondent claimed $4310.00 for time spent by a third party reading and translating Court material as well as doing research. This claim was denied on the basis that they are disbursements and not services of counsel.

With respect to disbursements, the Assessment Officer fully allowed the services of an interpret for the hearing ($210.00) as well as the full cost for printing documents despite the Applicant’s argument that the “rush” premium should not be included. The costs for translating documents filed with the court by the Respondent was, however, only partly allowed ($800.00) for a total bill of costs amounting to $4729.07.

By: Cindy Belanger, Heenan Blaikie