Casey R. Churko

The plaintiffs brought a motion to certify a class action against the manufacturers of the antidepressant Celexa (citalopram), alleging the drug caused congenital malformations when ingested by pregnant women and that the defendants failed to warn of this risk.

The court found that while the pleadings disclosed a cause of action and there was an identifiable class, the proposed common issue regarding the duty to warn lacked commonality because the risk of birth defects varied widely and individual causation issues would dominate.

The court concluded a class proceeding was not the preferable procedure due to the inevitability of complex individual trials, and dismissed the certification motion.

The representative plaintiff brought a motion for certification for settlement purposes and approval of a class action settlement concerning shipping charges paid by consumers returning defective video game controllers under warranty.

The settlement provided $20 reimbursement to approximately 400 customers and honoraria to the representative plaintiffs.

The court approved the settlement as fair and reasonable under the Class Proceedings Act, 1992.

However, the court strongly criticized class counsel’s fee arrangement, which lacked a written retainer or contingency agreement and relied solely on recovering legal fees from the defendant through settlement.

Applying the statutory requirement that legal fees be fair and reasonable and proportionate to the results achieved, the court reduced the requested fees and awarded $30,000.

The appellant appealed the motion judge's decision to approve the discontinuance of the respondents' national class action and dismiss the appellant's claim for an anti-suit injunction.

The Court of Appeal found no error in the motion judge's determination that the interests of absent class members would not be prejudiced by the discontinuance under s. 29 of the Class Proceedings Act.

The appeal was dismissed.