Sinziana R. Hennig

The plaintiff brought a motion to certify two proposed class actions alleging a price-fixing conspiracy in the Canadian canned tuna market.

The plaintiff alleged that the defendants conspired to fix prices of canned tuna sold in Canada, relying on findings from US antitrust proceedings.

The court dismissed the certification motion, finding no basis in fact that the alleged conspiracy existed in Canada.

The court held that the plaintiff failed to satisfy the cause of action, common issues, and preferable procedure criteria, as the market structure and participants in Canada were different from those in the US, and the plaintiff's expert evidence was based on incorrect factual assumptions.

Following the dismissal of their motion for leave to proceed under the Securities Act and for class certification, the plaintiffs brought a consent motion to discontinue the action without costs.

The court granted the motion, finding that discontinuance was appropriate and would not prejudice putative class members, as notice of the class proceeding had never been circulated.

The court also approved the proposed Notice of Discontinuance and Notice Plan.

Following the dismissal of the plaintiff's motions for leave to assert a statutory cause of action under the Securities Act and for certification of a class proceeding, the successful defendants sought costs of $363,184 on a partial indemnity basis.

The plaintiff argued for a reduced award of $250,000, citing the novelty and public interest of the case under s. 31(1) of the Class Proceedings Act, 1992.

The court agreed that the case raised a novel point of law and involved a matter of public interest, justifying a reduction in the costs award.

Costs were fixed at $285,000 all-inclusive.

The plaintiff sought leave to assert a statutory cause of action for secondary market misrepresentation under the Securities Act and to certify a class action against SNC-Lavalin and its directors.

The plaintiff alleged that SNC failed to timely disclose a material change when it was informed by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada that it would not be invited to negotiate a remediation agreement regarding criminal charges.

The court dismissed the motions, finding that the communication was not a 'change' in the business, operations, or capital of SNC, and therefore not a 'material change' requiring immediate disclosure.

The court also declined to certify the common law negligent misrepresentation claim, as reliance would be an individual issue and the statutory claim was not viable.

The applicant target company sought specific performance of a share purchase agreement after the respondent purchaser refused to close, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purchaser alleged breaches of the Material Adverse Effect (MAE), ordinary course, amortization event, and access to information covenants.

The court found that while the pandemic threatened earnings, it fell within the MAE's emergency carveout and did not disproportionately affect the target.

The target's pandemic responses, including branch access changes and accounting adjustments, were within the ordinary course of business for an economic downturn.

The court ordered specific performance of the agreement.