The Parties applied for a ruling on the Costs consequences of the Court’s Decision in Gault Estate v Gault Estate, 2016 ABCA 208 (CanLII). The Parties agreed that the successful Respondents were entitled to Costs in accordance with Rule 14.88; however, there was a dispute as to the scale of Costs.

The Court noted that the default rule is that Costs of the Appeal are awarded on the same scale as the Costs awarded by the Trial Judge. In cases where that is not applicable, the next default rule is that Costs are set based on the amount in dispute. If no amount is in dispute, Costs are awarded on Column 1 of Schedule C.

The Appellant argued that it had obtained some partial success in the Appeal since the Appeal was necessary to clarify the reach of some of the observations made by the Chambers Judge. However, the Court stated that, while this might be a relevant consideration, Costs are generally awarded based on the ultimate outcome and are not apportioned based on the outcome of a particular issue. The Court held that in this case the appropriate scale of Costs was Column 3 and awarded assessable fees of $5,000 plus reasonable disbursements to the Respondents.