17 Results

Common Ground? Class Action Updates

In Richard v. The Attorney General of Canada, the Ontario Superior Court recently confirmed that a defendant in an Ontario class proceeding is required to file a Statement of Defence pre-certification and in accordance with the Rules of Civil Procedure, absent special circumstances justifying a deferral. The proposed class proceeding in this case centered on…

Common Ground? Class Action Updates

This post relates to an important procedural aspect of the class proceedings regime. In Somani v. International Financial Group Ltd., the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted the plaintiffs’ motion to discontinue a proposed class action related to allegedly unpaid overtime, vacation, public holiday and premium pay. After commencing the claim, issues arose with the…

Common Ground? Class Action Updates

In a trio of cases, the Ontario Court of Appeal recently held that a claim for the tort of intrusion upon seclusion does not apply to companies who store personal information for commercial use (the “Database Defendants”) when those databases are hacked by third parties. Background In June 2022, the Court of Appeal heard three…

Common Ground? Class Action Updates

In this latest edition of Common Ground? Class Action Updates, we discuss two recent decisions of interest to employers. The first is a certification order relating to a systemic claim of negligence within a workplace. The second considers a plausible methodology to measure compensable loss. Federal Court Certifies Class Action Brought by Current and Former…

Common Ground? Class Action Updates

The law of vicarious liability is important to employers because it sets a framework to establish when employers will be liable for the misconduct of their employees. The principle was recently applied in Ari v. Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, where the British Columbia Supreme Court (the Court) found that the Insurance Corporation of British…

Common Ground? Class Action Updates

In Montaque v. Handa Travel Student Trip Ltd., the Ontario Superior Court recently approved a settlement in what the Court has stated is Canada’s first “volunteer misclassification” class action. Factual Background In 2020, a class action was certified against four related companies that operated a travel business selling vacation tours to students. The certified class…