Peter Engelmann

The representative plaintiff brought a motion for summary judgment on the liability common issues in a class action for unpaid overtime on behalf of customer service employees of the defendant bank.

The court found that the bank's overtime policies, which required pre-approval, and its failure to record actual hours worked, violated the Canada Labour Code.

The court concluded that the bank permitted uncompensated overtime by failing to prevent it, thereby breaching its statutory and contractual duties to the class members.

In an unpaid overtime class action, the defendant bank inadvertently produced three employee survey theme reports and brought a motion seeking their return on the basis of solicitor-client and litigation privilege.

The court dismissed the motion, finding that the reports were factual summaries created by a third-party vendor for business purposes, did not contain legal advice, and were not created with the dominant purpose of litigation preparation.

The documents were ordered to remain produced.

The defendant brought a motion to strike the plaintiff's defamation claim against him on the basis that it disclosed no reasonable cause of action.

The plaintiff alleged the defendant republished a defamatory email by replying to the original sender and potentially blind copying others.

The court held that replying only to the sender does not constitute publication or republication in defamation law.

Furthermore, the plaintiff failed to plead material facts supporting the bald allegation that the email was blind copied to third parties.

The motion was granted and the claim against the defendant was struck without leave to amend.