Brookelyn Kirkham

Two consolidated appeals concerning the interpretation of leave provisions in certification orders for class actions relating to trailing commissions paid to mutual fund managers.

The appellants (mutual fund managers) argued that new class actions commenced by different plaintiffs on behalf of different classes should have required leave under the certification orders because they related to the same subject matter.

The motion judge and Court of Appeal held that the leave requirement applied only to proceedings by the certified class members and parties to the original actions, not to new plaintiffs seeking to represent different classes.

The court dismissed the appeals, affirming that the leave provisions were limited in scope to the parties and class members bound by the original certification orders.

This is the penalty phase of a civil contempt proceeding.

The respondent, an unlicensed individual, was found to have breached a permanent injunction by misusing a licensed professional engineer's seal on building permit applications submitted to the City of Windsor.

The respondent misappropriated the seal on 29 of 48 pages bearing the engineer's seal, placed seals on drawings never prepared by the licensed engineer, altered dates on drawings, and resubmitted them as updated documents.

The court imposed a 14-day custodial sentence, finding the breach was knowing, deliberate, and repeated over several years.

The respondent showed no genuine remorse, continued to deny wrongdoing, and failed to comply with multiple court orders throughout the proceedings.

The court also awarded substantial indemnity costs of $21,144.85 payable in quarterly installments of $3,000 commencing January 1, 2026.

The court found Benabdallah Chouchaoui in contempt of a permanent injunction order prohibiting him and his company from holding out as engineers, engaging in the practice of professional engineering, or using an engineering seal without proper authorization under the Professional Engineers Act.

The decision details a pattern of non-compliance, including misuse of another engineer’s seal, failure to comply with court-ordered procedures, and evasive conduct.

The court awarded substantial indemnity costs to the applicant and scheduled a sentencing hearing.

The defendants in several related class actions brought motions for summary judgment, arguing that the plaintiffs' actions were statute-barred by limitation periods or were a nullity for failing to obtain leave to commence.

The court adjourned the limitation period motions, finding they overlapped with common issues in earlier certified class actions.

The court dismissed the motions based on the leave requirement, interpreting the certification orders' leave provisions as applying only to competing class actions representing the same class members, not to actions by different classes arising from the same factual matrix.

This endorsement addresses the sequencing of motions in a series of related class actions.

The 2018 plaintiffs sought a temporary stay of the 2022 actions.

The defendants proposed hearing the stay motion concurrently with their summary judgment motions, citing limitation period defenses.

The 2022 plaintiffs argued for their certification motion to proceed if the stay was delayed.

The court, acting as case management judge, directed that the motion to stay be heard first, finding no significant efficiencies in combining it with the summary judgment motions and stating that certification motions should only proceed after summary judgment motions are determined.

The plaintiffs in two putative class actions sought leave to discontinue one action entirely and partially discontinue the second against all but one defendant group.

This procedural step aimed to streamline the proceedings by converting omnibus actions into separate class proceedings against distinct defendant groups.

The defendants did not oppose the requests.

The court granted leave for both discontinuances, recognizing the efficiency gains.