"Entrepreneurial" Class Plaintiff Hit With $1 Million Costs Award

In Yip v. HSBC Holdings plc¹, a decision released on November 20, 2017, Justice Perell awarded partial indemnity costs of $1 million to defendants that had succeeded, on jurisdictional and forum conveniens grounds, in defeating a proposed shareholder class action. 

The decision illustrates the significant costs exposure that unsuccessful class plaintiffs may have to bear in complex and high-stakes commercial disputes. While the plaintiff relied in his costs submissions on the public interest and access to justice objectives that generally underlie class proceedings in Ontario, Justice Perell rejected these arguments in holding that there was no basis to relieve the plaintiff from the costs of the "entrepreneurial litigation" that he had triggered.