David Robins

This decision sanctions the CCAA Plans of Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited, Imperial Tobacco Company Limited, JTI-Macdonald Corp., and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc., effecting a global settlement of all tobacco-related claims in Canada.

The court reviews the structure, allocation, and fairness of the plans, including the creation of a $1 billion Cy-près Foundation, and addresses objections from social stakeholders.

The court finds the plans fair, reasonable, and in the public interest, and grants the requested relief, including third-party releases and the appointment of plan administrators.

The defendant, Corporation of the Town of LaSalle, brought a motion to dismiss the action or, alternatively, to strike the matter from the trial list or adjourn the trial, supported by the Tedesco defendants.

The motion was based on the plaintiffs' non-compliance with pre-trial orders regarding expert reports, cost estimates, and financial disclosure, as well as unanswered undertakings from discovery.

The court found that the plaintiffs had not fully complied with disclosure requirements, particularly concerning repair cost estimates and corporate income loss documentation.

Consequently, the court struck the action from the March 30, 2020 trial list, ordering that it not be restored until a court-approved schedule for remaining steps is established, to allow defendants to react to newly provided information and conduct further examinations.

This is a costs endorsement following the certification of a class action.

The plaintiffs, having succeeded in certifying their action, sought substantial costs totaling over $368,000.

The court significantly reduced the requested amount, disallowing costs related to scheduling, a companion motion in Quebec, and expert fees/counsel time for experts at the certification stage.

The court found that the defendant's opposition to certification was modest and did not constitute a "full attack" warranting such extensive costs at that stage.

The final award was $84,500 plus HST in partial indemnity costs and $27,119.34 in disbursements.

The court awarded costs following the dismissal of the plaintiffs' motion for certification in a class action.

The defendants sought $255,707.13, while the plaintiffs argued for no costs or $75,000, citing public interest and novel legal issues.

The court rejected these arguments, finding no public interest dimension as no losses were sustained and the defendant reacted responsibly to the cyber-hack.

The court also found the legal issues not novel, despite involving a cyber-attack, as similar incidents have led to numerous class actions.

Applying its established approach to costs in certification motions, the court adhered to the Grid rates for hourly fees, explicitly rejecting the defendants' argument for 60% of actual rates.

After considering a Grid-compliant outline of $176,459 and a 10% reduction for additional work attributed to the defendant, the court fixed an all-inclusive costs award of $160,000 to be paid by the plaintiffs to the defendants.

This proposed class action alleged that Bell Mobility Inc. breached the privacy rights of its data service customers by using their personal information for its "Relevant Advertising Program" (RAP) without consent.

The plaintiffs sought certification of the class action.

The court certified the action, including all pleaded causes of action (contract, waiver of tort, negligence, breach of confidence, intrusion upon seclusion, consumer protection legislation, and Quebec civil law claims) and common issues.

The court rejected the defendant's argument that some claims were redundant and made the class proceeding unmanageable, affirming that it is not the judge's role at certification to pare down properly pleaded causes of action.

The decision also addressed the availability and methodology for aggregate damages.

An anonymous hacker stole personal information from Casino Rama's computer system, affecting customers, employees, and suppliers.

The plaintiffs sought to certify a class action for negligence, breach of contract, intrusion upon seclusion, and other privacy torts.

The motion for certification was dismissed.

The court found that claims for breach of confidence and publicity given to private life were bound to fail.

While negligence, breach of contract, and intrusion upon seclusion were deemed viable causes of action, the common issues requirement under s. 5(1)(c) of the Class Proceedings Act, 1992 was not satisfied.

The court determined that the proposed common issues required too much individual inquiry, particularly regarding the duty and standard of care, and the varying sensitivity of stolen information.

The class definition was also found to be overbroad, specifically including unionized employees whose claims fell under exclusive labour arbitration jurisdiction.

The appellants appealed a motion judge's decision dismissing their action for delay and refusing to restore it to the trial list.

The underlying action concerned alleged breach of contract by the respondent lawyer and his law firm regarding a beer supply contract with Labatt.

The action was commenced in 2005 but proceeded slowly, with examinations for discovery not completed until 2010.

The motion judge applied the two-part test from Nissar v. Toronto Transit Commission and found no acceptable explanation for the delay and non-compensable prejudice to the respondents, particularly due to the death of a key witness.

The Court of Appeal upheld the motion judge's decision, finding no error in law or discretion.

The defendant, Ontario, brought a motion to transfer the plaintiff's civil action for wrongful conviction from Toronto to Woodstock.

The plaintiff had been wrongfully convicted of manslaughter in Woodstock in 1971 and spent over three years in prison before being exonerated in 2015.

The court applied the holistic balancing test under Rule 13.1.02 of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

Finding that the plaintiff's damages were sustained outside Woodstock and that forcing him to return to the site of his wrongful conviction would be unjust, the court dismissed the motion, preserving the plaintiff's presumptive right to choose the venue.

The police defendants in a civil action arising from a criminal sexual assault acquittal moved to seal materials filed in support of their summary judgment motion.

The media sought intervenor status to oppose the sealing order.

The court granted the media intervenor status and dismissed the motion to seal, finding the police defendants failed to meet the Dagenais/Mentuck test to overcome the open court principle.

The court confirmed the criminal publication ban protecting the complainant's identity remained in force and ordered the use of initials in pleadings.

The appellant appealed from a summary judgment decision dismissing its motion and granting the respondent's motion, which declared the respondent to be the legal and beneficial owner of CDN$100,000 and US$300,000 in stolen funds that the appellant had paid out under mistake to a third party fraudster.

The appellant had been defrauded of over US$66 million in a sophisticated fraud scheme.

The Court of Appeal upheld the lower court's decision, finding that while the appellant successfully traced the US$300,000 to the respondent, the respondent was a bona fide purchaser for value who had paid valuable consideration in Chinese currency without knowledge of the funds' illicit source and had legitimately changed his position.

Two competing class actions were commenced following a cyberattack and privacy breach at Casino Rama.

The plaintiffs in the Kaplan Action and the plaintiff in the Harman Action both sought carriage of the proceeding.

The court applied the seven non-exhaustive factors for determining carriage, noting that the Kaplan Action counsel had more class action experience, a better class definition, and a more refined theory of the case.

The Harman Action counsel argued that their action would proceed faster in the Oshawa court, providing speedier access to justice.

The court rejected the speed argument as determinative on the facts and granted carriage to the Kaplan Action, staying the Harman Action.

The defendant tobacco companies brought motions for summary judgment to dismiss the plaintiffs' proposed class actions as statute-barred.

The plaintiffs alleged the defendants breached their contracts by participating in smuggling duty-free tobacco back into Canada, avoiding higher domestic prices.

The defendants argued the plaintiffs knew or ought to have known of the alleged smuggling long before commencing the actions in 2009 and 2010.

The court dismissed the motions, finding a genuine issue requiring a trial regarding when the plaintiffs discovered the constituent elements of their claims, particularly given the defendants' consistent denials of involvement in smuggling.

Following the dismissal of a civil action alleging negligence and wrongdoing by police and the Crown arising from a historic murder conviction later quashed, certain police defendants sought substantial indemnity costs against the plaintiff.

The court considered the extraordinary circumstances of the case, including the miscarriage of justice that resulted in the plaintiff serving decades in prison and the role of state actors in the events leading to that outcome.

Although the action had been dismissed as an abuse of process due to the inability to re-litigate factual findings already determined by the Court of Appeal and the prejudice caused by the passage of time, the court held that ordering costs would be unfair and contrary to the interests of justice.

Exercising its discretion, the court declined to award costs to the successful defendants.

The plaintiff, whose murder conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal after a reference, brought a civil action against the Crown and police alleging negligence and wrongdoing related to an undisclosed alibi.

The defendants moved to dismiss or stay the action.

The court dismissed the action as an abuse of process, finding that it sought to relitigate factual findings already made by the Court of Appeal regarding the absence of wrongdoing by the Crown and police.

The court also held that, alternatively, a permanent stay under s. 106 of the Courts of Justice Act was warranted due to the impossibility of a fair trial given the passage of over 40 years, faded memories, and lost evidence.