Brent Joseph Arnold

This appeal concerned the dismissal of a proposed class action against Capital One and Amazon Web following a data breach.

The motion judge had struck the appellants' pleadings without leave to amend and dismissed their certification motion, finding the case 'doomed to fail'.

The Court of Appeal upheld the motion judge's decision, affirming that the pleadings failed to disclose viable causes of action for data misuse (intrusion upon seclusion, misappropriation of personality, conversion, breach of confidence/trust/fiduciary duty) and data breach (negligence, statutory claims).

The Court also upheld the decision to deny leave to amend the pleadings, citing repeated opportunities and the defective nature of the claims.

The appellants' motion for an extension of time to appeal costs was also dismissed.

The appellant brought a motion for leave to appeal a prior order.

The Divisional Court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal and awarded costs to the responding party in the all-inclusive amount of $1,500.

The moving party, XTM, Inc., brought a motion for leave to appeal the order of Justice R.A. Lococo dated August 12, 2021.

The Divisional Court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal without costs.

The moving parties sought leave to appeal a costs order.

The Divisional Court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal in writing.

Costs of the motion were fixed at $5,000 payable by the moving parties.

Following the dismissal of a proposed $240 billion class action regarding a data breach, the successful defendants sought costs.

The plaintiffs argued costs should be limited to a partial indemnity scale for a pleadings motion.

The court found that the plaintiffs' unsubstantiated allegations of professional misconduct against defence counsel, combined with their egregious violations of pleading rules and massive expansion of the claim, justified costs on a substantial indemnity basis.

The court awarded $725,000 to Capital One and $500,000 to Amazon Web.

The plaintiffs brought a motion to certify a $240 billion class action against a financial institution and a cloud storage provider following a massive data breach perpetrated by a former employee of the storage provider.

The plaintiffs alleged numerous causes of action, including intrusion upon seclusion, misappropriation of personality, conversion, breach of confidence, and negligence, arguing that the defendants misappropriated and misused the class members' personal information by retaining and aggregating it beyond its initial purpose.

The court dismissed the certification motion, finding that the plaintiffs' Fresh as Amended Statement of Claim egregiously contravened the rules of pleading and failed to disclose any legally viable causes of action against the corporate defendants.

The pleading was struck in its entirety without leave to amend.

The plaintiffs in a proposed class action regarding a data breach sought court approval of a settlement with the defendant GitHub.

The court declined to approve the settlement as proposed, noting that it could not make a binding ruling on its own jurisdiction based on the consent of the parties, and that the substantive merits of the settlement (essentially a discontinuance) did not support approval at this stage.

At the parties' request, the motion was adjourned sine die.

In a proposed class action regarding a data breach, the plaintiffs brought a motion for an injunction to enjoin or supervise communications from the defendants to putative class members.

The defendants intended to send a notice to 51,000 affected individuals offering free credit monitoring.

The court dismissed the motion, finding no reason to intervene as the proposed notice did not affect the integrity of the class proceedings or compromise the putative class members' rights.

The Canadian National Railway Company (CNR) moved to stay an application brought by the Regional Municipality of Halton and its constituent municipalities (Halton) concerning the applicability of provincial and municipal laws to CNR's proposed intermodal rail hub in Milton.

Halton's application sought declarations on constitutional division of powers issues, arguing that provincial and local laws of general application should apply to the federal undertaking.

CNR contended the application was premature and interfered with an ongoing federal environmental assessment process.

The court granted CNR's motion to stay Halton's application, finding that while the constitutional issues were not hypothetical, the federal environmental review panel was mandated to consider local concerns and impacts, and allowing the application to proceed would be an unwarranted intrusion into the federal process and an inefficient use of judicial resources.

The stay is temporary, pending the completion of the federal environmental assessment and the Minister's decision.

The applicant, Dundee Oil & Gas Limited, sought approval for the sale of substantially all its assets and the assignment of associated executory contracts under s. 11.3 of the CCAA.

The court initially adjourned the matter to require further evidence regarding the purchaser's financial stability and ability to manage environmental remediation obligations.

After reviewing supplementary evidence, including cash flow forecasts and the purchaser's operational plans, the court was satisfied that the purchaser would be able to perform the obligations.

The court approved the transaction and the assignment of the contracts.

Following a successful appeal of an arbitration award, the appellants sought costs for the appeal and two preliminary motions.

The respondents argued success was divided and disputed the scale and quantum.

The court found the appellants were entirely successful and entitled to costs for the appeal and the preliminary motions, which were necessitated by the respondents' ill-advised motion to quash.

The court declined to award substantial indemnity costs, finding no reprehensible conduct, and fixed costs on a partial indemnity scale at $54,284.74.

The appellants appealed an arbitration award under s. 45 of the Arbitration Act, 1991, arguing the arbitrator exceeded his jurisdiction by directing the boards of two corporate parties to determine the profits of a non-party US corporation.

The Superior Court of Justice agreed, finding that an arbitrator cannot bind or govern the affairs of a non-party.

The appeal was allowed in part, and the specific paragraph of the formal judgment affecting the non-party was set aside and remitted to the arbitrator with directions.

The defendant abandoned its motion for an interlocutory injunction after failing to obtain interim relief.

The plaintiff sought substantial indemnity costs, arguing it had made an offer to settle that it beat due to the abandonment.

The court held that under Rule 49, a responding party is not automatically entitled to substantial indemnity costs upon beating an offer, and such an award requires reprehensible conduct, which was absent here.

The court awarded the plaintiff partial indemnity costs fixed at $17,500.

The plaintiff, a former President of the defendant company, brought an action for wrongful dismissal and oppression, claiming a 15% equity interest.

The plaintiff brought a motion to compel the defendants to produce a further and better affidavit of documents, specifically seeking financial and operational records.

The defendants brought a cross-motion for divided disclosure, arguing that the threshold issue of oppression should be determined before the consequential issue of valuation, and that producing the documents to the plaintiff (now working for a competitor) would cause serious prejudice.

The Master dismissed the defendants' cross-motion, finding that the issues were not clearly severable and that the defendants failed to demonstrate serious prejudice.

The Master ordered the production of most of the disputed documents, subject to a confidentiality order.

The CCAA monitor of Algoma brought an oppression action under the CBCA against Algoma's parent company, Essar Global, regarding a transaction that transferred Algoma's critical port facilities to a related entity.

The court found that the monitor had standing to bring the action on behalf of creditors.

The court held that the port transaction and a change of control clause giving Essar Global a veto over any buyer of Algoma violated the reasonable expectations of creditors and were oppressive.

The court rejected the business judgment rule defence and ordered the deletion of the change of control clause and amended the agreements to allow Algoma to terminate them after a third-party loan is repaid.

The appellant trustee in bankruptcy appealed a trial judge's decision allowing the secured claims of a nominee company controlled by the respondent.

The appellant argued that the claims were barred by a full and final mutual release previously executed by the respondent.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, finding that the trial judge made an extricable error of law by failing to consider the release as a whole.

Properly interpreted, the release captured successor corporations under the respondent's control, including the nominee company, and barred the claims.

The Trustee in bankruptcy appealed the trial judge's refusal to set aside transactions arising from a settlement between an investor and a real estate developer.

The Trustee argued the payments and mortgages were transfers at undervalue, unjust preferences, fraudulent conveyances, oppressive, and an unjust enrichment.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding the settlement was supported by adequate consideration (forbearance from suit), the parties were at arm's length, and there was no intent to defraud creditors.

The investor's cross-appeal regarding a $471,000 payment found to be a fraudulent conveyance was also dismissed.

The appellant, acting as trustee in bankruptcy for two creditors, appealed the trial judge's partial disallowance of claims advanced in the bankruptcy of a development company.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal in part, correcting the quantum of an unsecured claim from $420,000 to $457,600 and ordering interest to be calculated from the date of each individual advance rather than the final advance.

The court dismissed the appeal regarding the disallowance of certain third-party payments, finding the trial judge applied the correct standard of proof.

The court also upheld the application of the Courts of Justice Act for interest on an unjust enrichment claim, but varied the end date for interest accrual to the date of receivership.

A cross-appeal by another creditor was dismissed.

Wrigley Canada Inc. (moving party) sought an interim injunction and an inspection order under Rule 32 to conduct its own environmental testing on the adjacent property owned by Metrus Properties (responding party).

Metrus had sued Wrigley alleging contamination from Wrigley's property and had refused Wrigley access for testing, subsequently beginning excavation work.

The court granted the injunction and inspection order, finding that Wrigley had demonstrated a serious issue to be tried, would suffer irreparable harm if denied access to conduct independent testing before excavation altered the site, and that the balance of convenience favoured granting the order, especially given Metrus's refusal of access and non-disclosure of excavation plans.

Following a 26-day hearing regarding claims under the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act, all parties sought costs against each other.

The self-represented appellants alleged the respondent and added party misled the tribunal and engaged in bullying, while the respondent and added party argued the appellants' conduct was unreasonable, frivolous, and vexatious.

The Licence Appeal Tribunal denied all costs requests, finding that while the hearing was challenging and acrimonious, the conduct of the parties did not rise to the level of being unreasonable, frivolous, vexatious, or in bad faith under Rule 14.1, particularly considering the appellants' self-represented status and emotional investment in the case.