David Israelsohn

The appellant employer lost a contract to provide rehabilitation services at a hospital to a competitor.

The appellant terminated its employees, who were subsequently hired by the competitor without recognition of past service.

The appellant argued that a 'sale of a business' occurred under s. 9 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000, relieving it of the obligation to provide termination and severance pay.

The Divisional Court dismissed the appeal, upholding the Small Claims Court finding that no sale or transfer occurred, as no assets were transferred and there was no commercial connection between the competitors.

The defendant, a US citizen residing in Texas, brought a motion to stay the plaintiff's breach of employment contract action on the basis of forum non conveniens.

The plaintiff, a consulting firm with its head office in Toronto, hired the defendant to provide services globally.

The employment agreement specified Ontario law as the governing law.

The court applied the test from Club Resorts Ltd. v. Van Breda and the factors from Young v. Tyco, finding that the defendant failed to demonstrate that Texas was a clearly more appropriate jurisdiction.

The motion to stay was dismissed.

The applicant brought a motion for procedural relief in his application for judicial review of an Ontario Labour Relations Board decision.

He sought to have his wife represent him or be added as a party, production of his opening submissions to the Board, production of 750 pages of payroll records, and to strike the respondents' facta.

The court dismissed the motion in its entirety, finding no legal basis for spousal representation, noting the Board record was complete, and holding that disagreement with a factum is not grounds to strike it.

Costs of $3,500 were awarded to the respondent employer.