Alexander Bill Dimson

This is a class action alleging financial misrepresentations in the sale of the defendant's securities.

The class comprises persons or entities who acquired securities between March 30, 2011 and November 7, 2013.

The action was certified under the Class Proceedings Act in December 2018.

The parties reached a proposed settlement whereby the defendant will pay $6,800,000 without admitting liability to resolve all claims.

The court approved the notice plan for dissemination to class members and appointed Epiq Global as the settlement administrator.

A settlement approval hearing was scheduled for December 2, 2025.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario considered appeals and cross-appeals from a certification decision in a proposed class action regarding alleged defects in BMW vehicles equipped with N20 engines.

The court found that the certification judge erred in certifying causes of action for negligent design/manufacturing resulting in repair costs and in defining the class to include persons who incurred such costs.

The court held that neither of the proposed representative plaintiffs had a valid cause of action and set aside the certification order.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario considered an appeal and cross-appeal, along with motions to quash.

The parties agreed that the appeal and cross-appeal were sufficiently interrelated to be heard together to avoid duplication and ensure consistency.

Consequently, the court, on consent, dismissed both motions to quash without costs, ordering the consolidated appeal and cross-appeal to proceed.

This is a class action certification motion concerning allegedly defective N20 engines in BMW vehicles.

The plaintiffs sought to certify a class of owners/lessees of BMW vehicles with these engines, alleging design and/or manufacturing defects causing sudden loss of power.

The court analyzed the five certification criteria under the Class Proceedings Act, 1992.

While a cause of action in negligence was found, it was significantly narrowed to exclude claims for pure economic loss, limiting recovery to repair costs for actual damage or to avert imminent damage.

The proposed class definition was also narrowed to include only those who incurred such repair expenses by the judgment date.

One of the two proposed representative plaintiffs was deemed unsuitable as she had no recoverable loss.

The motion for certification was granted, but with substantial limitations on the scope of the class and the recoverable damages, and with only one representative plaintiff.

This class action is in the settlement administration phase.

Class Counsel sought an order appointing Doug Mitchell as a bilingual arbitrator to assess appeals filed by class members regarding claims administrator decisions, as contemplated by the court-approved Administration Protocol.

The court granted the motion, finding Mr. Mitchell qualified and his appointment consistent with the fair and expeditious determination of class member appeals under section 12 of the Class Proceedings Act, 1992.

The plaintiffs brought a motion seeking an interim stay and an adjournment of a scheduled certification motion in Ontario.

The purpose was to pursue certification of a national class in a parallel class proceeding in British Columbia, citing the death of lead counsel in BC and anticipated legislative changes allowing opt-out national classes there.

The court denied the motion, finding the request was a late-stage tactical shift amounting to forum shopping, inefficient, and unfair to the defendant and class members, especially given the Ontario action's advanced stage and prior agreements on scheduling.

A secondary market misrepresentation class action was brought against a coal mining company and its former CFOs and directors following the company's restatement of financial statements for 2010-2012.

The motion judge granted leave to proceed against the company but denied leave against the individual defendants, finding they had established a reasonable investigation defence.

The Court of Appeal reversed, holding that the motion judge erred by treating the leave motion as a mini-trial and failing to consider significant credibility issues and gaps in the evidentiary record.

The court found that the defendants' position—that they should evade liability because they previously made material misrepresentations in the restatement but are now telling the truth—was inconsistent with fundamental securities regulation principles requiring scrupulous continuous disclosure.

The Superior Court of Justice approved a $69 million settlement in a securities class action against Manulife Financial Corporation, along with the plan of allocation, honoraria for representative plaintiffs, class counsel's contingency fees, and a preliminary commission for a third-party litigation funder.

The court found the late-stage settlement to be fair and reasonable, considering the extensive litigation and identified risks, including compelling evidence of market understanding of Manulife's hedging practices, a reasonable investigation defense, arguments against corrective disclosure, the impact of the economic crisis, and the dismissal of a parallel U.S. action.