Joel P. Rochon

The moving parties brought a motion for leave to appeal an earlier order.

The Divisional Court granted the motion for leave to appeal.

The entitlement to costs of the motion was reserved to the panel hearing the appeal, with the quantum fixed at $5,000.

The appellants, proposed representative plaintiffs in a securities class action, appealed a motion judge's order that granted leave for one misrepresentation claim but denied leave for others under the Ontario Securities Act.

The primary issues on appeal concerned the motion judge's approach to determining "public correction" of alleged misrepresentations, particularly by assuming falsity and applying a narrow textual analysis without considering market context.

The Court of Appeal found that the motion judge erred in principle by not engaging in a reasoned consideration of evidence regarding how alleged public corrections would be understood in the secondary market.

The Court remitted the issues of leave for capital expense/scheduling and accounting/financial reporting misrepresentations back to the lower court for redetermination, while upholding the denial of leave for certain environmental misrepresentations due to chronology issues.

This is the damages phase of a multi-party action brought by 28 former patients of the Oak Ridge Division of the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre.

In the liability phase, the defendants (two psychiatrists and the Crown) were found liable for breach of fiduciary duty and battery for subjecting the plaintiffs to experimental and harmful psychiatric programs (DDT, Capsule, and MAPP) between the 1960s and 1980s.

The court assessed general, punitive, and income loss damages on an individual basis.

General damages were awarded to all plaintiffs, ranging from nominal amounts to over $2 million for the most severely impacted.

Punitive damages were awarded in cases involving particularly egregious conduct, such as the treatment of underage patients or the administration of alcohol to known alcoholics.

Income loss claims were largely limited or barred by the ex turpi causa doctrine, which prevented recovery for periods the plaintiffs spent lawfully incarcerated or institutionalized for subsequent criminal offenses.

The plaintiffs in a proposed class action arising from a Ponzi scheme sought to dismiss the action and distribute funds held in trust to an individual plaintiff who had obtained a default judgment in a parallel action.

The court granted the dismissal of the class action, finding no purpose in continuing against judgment-proof defendants and no prejudice to class members.

However, the court declined to order the distribution of funds, noting it lacked jurisdiction and the order was unnecessary as the individual plaintiff already held a default judgment.

The court issued a file direction/order in a long-standing class action concerning alleged market timing by mutual funds.

The order set a peremptory trial date for January 10, 2022, for a maximum 40-day trial, conditional on the parties approving a detailed Trial Agenda by September 30, 2021.

The judge emphasized the need for the action to be genuinely ready for trial and for the Trial Agenda to be strictly adhered to, subject to judicial leave for variations.

The defendants brought motions across five Canadian jurisdictions to address overlapping multijurisdictional class actions regarding a data breach.

The parties reached a settlement to proceed only with the Ontario national class action and stay the actions in British Columbia, Alberta, Québec, and Nova Scotia.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved the consent order dismissing the stay motion in Ontario, allowing the action to proceed subject to bi-annual reporting requirements to the case management judges in the other jurisdictions.

During a trial, the plaintiffs brought a motion to qualify a forensic accountant to give expert evidence on the quantification of income loss and to respond to the defendants' experts' use of the HALS/PALS statistical approach.

The defendants argued the accountant was not qualified to comment on the HALS/PALS approach.

The court held that while the accountant lacked medical or vocational expertise to apply the HALS/PALS data, his experience in valuation methodology qualified him to opine on the comparative merits of individualized versus statistical approaches to discount rates.

The expert was qualified to give opinion evidence on accounting issues and valuation methodology.

During the damages phase of a trial concerning institutional abuse, the defendants moved to exclude the expert testimony of the plaintiff's treating psychologist, arguing her long-term therapeutic relationship compromised her objectivity.

The court dismissed the motion, finding that the expert's changing opinions over time were reasonably explained by her subsequent review of the plaintiff's clinical records from the institution, rather than an assumption of an advocacy role.

The court held that the expert maintained the requisite independence and objectivity to assist the court.

During the damages phase of a trial concerning historical abuses at the Oak Ridge Social Therapy Unit, the defendants moved to strike portions of the plaintiffs' expert reply report authored by Dr. Roy O'Shaughnessy.

The defendants argued the impugned paragraphs raised irrelevant issues or issues already addressed in the liability phase.

The court granted the motion in part, striking paragraphs that opined on alternative treatments or whether the plaintiffs should have been at Oak Ridge, as these fell outside the scope of the damages inquiry.

Paragraphs addressing the impact of the programs on the plaintiffs' institutionalization and employment trajectories were deemed admissible.

The defendants requested the court to issue a formal judgment following the liability phase of a bifurcated trial to establish res judicata for the upcoming damages phase.

The plaintiffs consented to the form of the draft judgment but argued it was unnecessary at this stage.

The court declined to issue the formal judgment, finding that the trial is a single proceeding and a comprehensive judgment should be issued after the damages phase is completed, though the liability findings remain binding.

The moving parties sought leave to appeal from an order of Belobaba J. The Divisional Court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal and awarded costs of $5,000 to the responding parties.

In the second phase (damages) of a bifurcated trial concerning institutional abuse at the Oak Ridge mental health facility, the defendants moved to exclude three expert reports tendered by the plaintiffs.

The court found that the reports of the two psychiatrists and one psychologist improperly repeated and elaborated on causation evidence that had already been adjudicated in the first phase of the trial.

The court ruled the reports inadmissible under the Mohan test as they were unnecessary and prejudicial, but granted the plaintiffs leave to submit revised reports focused strictly on the quantification of damages and economic loss.

The defendants brought a motion to enforce a costs order made by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Supreme Court had ordered that the parties bear their own costs in the Superior Court, based on a misdescription of the procedural history as involving two separate motions (one for certification, one for a stay).

The Superior Court interpreted the Supreme Court's ruling to mean that the plaintiff must repay the costs associated with the stay of proceedings argument, but could retain the costs awarded for the certification motion, which was not appealed to the Supreme Court.

The plaintiff was ordered to repay $12,180 to the defendants.

The defendants brought motions for leave to appeal an order certifying a class action.

The Divisional Court granted leave to appeal, but limited it to two specific questions: whether the motion judge erred in applying the preferable procedure requirement under s. 5(1)(d) of the Class Proceedings Act given a parallel authorization in Quebec, and whether the judge erred in applying the abuse of process doctrine.

Costs of the motion were fixed at $5,000 and left to the discretion of the panel hearing the appeal.

The Quebec Plaintiffs and the Defendants brought motions for leave to appeal an order of Belobaba J. dated November 21, 2019.

The Divisional Court dismissed both motions for leave to appeal.

Costs of $2,500 were ordered payable by each of the moving parties to the responding Ontario Plaintiffs.

Case management endorsement scheduling a motion to determine whether a motion for leave to appeal a carriage decision in a proposed securities class action is stayed by an initial order under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

The court directed the responding party to bring a motion to stay the leave application, to be heard by a single judge of the Divisional Court.

The plaintiffs, former involuntary patients at the maximum-security Oak Ridge division of the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre, brought an action against two doctors and the provincial Crown.

They alleged they were subjected to abusive and experimental psychiatric programs, including hallucinogenic drugs, solitary confinement, and harsh disciplinary regimes, without informed consent.

The court found that the doctors breached their fiduciary duties and committed assault and battery.

The court also found the Crown directly and vicariously liable for these breaches and torts, rejecting the Crown's arguments of statutory immunity, limitation periods, and laches.

The trial was bifurcated, with this decision addressing liability and causation, leaving damages to be quantified later.

The Plaintiffs sought costs after successfully certifying a class action and dismissing a stay motion.

The court awarded the Plaintiffs $700,000 in all-inclusive costs, comprising $366,149.88 in disbursements and $333,850.12 in fees.

The court emphasized the discretionary nature of costs, the importance of certification motions in class actions, and the need for unsuccessful parties to provide their own bills of costs for comparison.

A portion of the costs ($30,000) was specifically allocated to two defendants (Bristol-Myers and Otsuka) for the stay motion, which the third defendant (Lundbeck) did not participate in.

This case conference endorsement addressed three scheduling matters in ongoing class action litigation: an upcoming motion regarding costs ordered by the Supreme Court of Canada, a motion to revise the certification order, and the discovery plan and schedule.

The court established a specific timeline for the costs motion and examinations for discovery, and scheduled a further case conference to review progress on the certification amendment motion.

The Ontario Plaintiff moved to quash the Quebec Plaintiff's appeal of an order dismissing a motion to stay the Ontario class action.

The Court of Appeal held that the refusal to stay the Ontario Action is an interlocutory order, not a final order, because it does not determine any substantive right to relief or substantive defence.

As the order is interlocutory, the appeal lies to the Divisional Court with leave, not to the Court of Appeal.

The appeal was quashed for lack of jurisdiction.