Adam Nickerson

The defendants, Chris Schoonderwoerd and National Bank Financial, brought a motion to stay an action commenced by Edward Jones in Ontario on the basis of forum non conveniens.

Edward Jones alleged that Schoonderwoerd, a former investment advisor, breached non-solicitation and non-disclosure terms of his employment contract, with the assistance of National Bank Financial.

The court acknowledged jurisdiction in Ontario but found Alberta to be the clearly more appropriate forum, considering the location of parties, performance and alleged breach of contract, and the vast majority of relevant witnesses.

The motion to stay the Ontario proceedings was granted.

The plaintiff's counsel sought an adjournment of a long motion brought by the defendant to dismiss a class action.

The adjournment was requested primarily due to the recent retention of outside counsel who was unavailable, among other reasons.

The court reluctantly granted the adjournment, criticizing plaintiff's counsel's conduct for causing needless delay and wasting judicial resources, but found it necessary to prevent irreparable prejudice to the plaintiff.

The court emphasized that retaining new counsel on the eve of a hearing will not constitute exceptional circumstances for future adjournments.

Costs of $10,000 were awarded against the plaintiff's counsel.

The plaintiffs in two proposed class actions sought court approval under s. 29 of the Class Proceedings Act, 1992, to dismiss their actions against PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) with prejudice and without costs, and to discontinue the actions against the non-settling defendants without prejudice and without costs.

This motion was brought to implement a $30 million settlement reached with PwC in a parallel, national class action proceeding in Québec, which had already been approved by the Québec Superior Court.

The court granted the requested orders, finding that the interests of the putative class members in Ontario would not be prejudiced, as they could participate in the Québec settlement and broad notice had been provided regarding the impact on their rights.