2 total
Employer's appeal of LTD benefits award dismissed, but unpleaded punitive damages award set aside.
The appellant employer appealed a trial judgment awarding the respondent former employee damages for lost long-term disability (LTD) benefits and punitive damages following a wrongful dismissal.
The respondent had been diagnosed with cancer after finding alternate employment and claimed he would have been entitled to LTD benefits under the appellant's plan.
The Court of Appeal upheld the LTD benefits award, finding sufficient medical and vocational evidence that the respondent was totally disabled and incapable of working, thus negating any failure to mitigate.
However, the Court set aside the $15,000 punitive damages award because it had not been pleaded or sought at trial.
Restrictive covenant in sale of business upheld as reasonable and enforceable against former owners.
The appellants sold their manufacturing business to the respondents and signed a restrictive covenant prohibiting them from competing for five years after the sale or after terminating their employment, whichever was later.
Nine years later, the appellants resigned and started a competing business.
The respondents sued for breach of the covenant.
The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the Court of Appeal's decision that the covenant was clear, unambiguous, and enforceable.
The Court found the covenant reasonable between the parties and in the public interest, rejecting the appellants' arguments that the respondents' alleged monopolistic practices rendered the covenant void.
