On March 9, 2018, the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) released its Consultation Paper entitled “Class Actions: Objectives, Experiences and Reforms”. The Consultation Paper is the next phase of the LCO’s Class Actions Project which is set to conduct a general review of the class action landscape in Ontario, with a view to providing a … Continue reading
(The author was a member of the CBA National Class Actions Task Force 2016-2017) At the CBA Annual Meeting on February 15, 2018, a resolution to approve, as best practices, a revised Canadian Judicial Protocol for the Management of Multi-Jurisdictional Class Actions was approved. The resolution also urges Canadian courts that administer class actions to … Continue reading
In the U.S. there has been an notable uptick in class action lawsuits launched against companies in the cryptocurrency market in late 2017. As public attention turned to the roller-coaster ride of cryptocurrency markets over the past year, it is not surprising that ambitious class counsel have jumped on the ride by issuing their first … Continue reading
Plaintiffs in class action claims for misrepresentation in the secondary market recently scored a victory when the Ontario Superior Court of Justice determined[1] that not only does it have jurisdiction over these claims brought by Canadians who purchased shares of a company registered in Canada on a foreign stock exchange, but that Canadian securities and … Continue reading
In a previous post, You Get it Right and it’s Still a Misrepresentation: the Paradox in Pretium, we reported on the decision of Justice Belobaba in Wong v Pretium Resources Inc. granting leave to the plaintiff to commence an action for secondary market misrepresentation under Part XXIII.1 of the Ontario Securities Act. On December 1, … Continue reading
The Yip v. HSBC Holdings plc[1] saga continues with the granting of a costs award in the amount to $1,000,455.22 to the successful defendants following a successful motion by the corporate defendant to stay the action on jurisdictional grounds and an unsuccessful cross-motion by the plaintiff for a declaration that the corporate defendant was a … Continue reading
No Common Law Duty of Care Owed by Underwriters to Investors in a Bought Deal: LBP Holdings Ltd. v. Hycroft Mining Corporation, 2017 ONSC 6342 On October 24, 2017, Justice Perell of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a motion to certify claims for negligent misrepresentation and negligence against two underwriters primarily on the … Continue reading
Perhaps in tongue and cheek, perhaps not, Perell J. begins his decision in Berg v. Canadian Hockey League, 2017 ONSC 5382, by quoting Winston Churchill’s famous World War II speech : We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we … Continue reading
Public companies can face significant securities litigation risk over defective algorithms, data errors and software glitches. As securities class action filings continue to increase across the board, plaintiffs lawyers have attacked numerous companies over stock price declines that occur after software problems are revealed. Recent court decisions denying dismissal in securities class actions against Fitbit … Continue reading
The recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Rahimi v. SouthGobi Resources Ltd., 2017 ONCA 719 provides further guidance concerning the role of the judge on a motion for leave to commence a secondary market class action pursuant to s. 138.8(1) of the Securities Act (the Act) and the application of the defence … Continue reading
In Kaynes v. BP, P.L.C. [2017] ONSC 5172, Justice Perell characterizes his decision about the operation of the limitation period set out in s. 138.14 of Part XXIII.1 of the Ontario Securities Act (the Act) as “the latest sequel or prequel in what has turned out to be the case law equivalent of a horror-movie … Continue reading
In the most recent Ontario decision on third-party litigation financing, Justice Perell provides further guidance concerning the circumstances in which such funding arrangements will receive court approval. In Houle v. St. Jude Medical Inc., 2017 ONSC 5129, Bentham IMF Capital Inc. (Bentham), an Australian-based litigation financing firm, entered into a financing agreement with Mr. and … Continue reading
A gold mining company chooses not to disclose preliminary mineral sampling results that it viewed as unreliable. Further testing eventually proves the preliminary sample to be inaccurate. In Wong v Pretium Resources, 2017 ONSC 3361 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted leave for a plaintiff to proceed with a securities class action under s. … Continue reading
Securities class action filings have hit record highs in the United States. In 2016, the United States observed the highest number of securities class action filings since “the early 2000s dot-com crash.”[1] By July of this year, 246 new securities class actions claims were filed in U.S. federal courts.[2] This phenomenon comes as little surprise; … Continue reading
On July 13, 2017, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) announced that it had approved yet another “no-contest” settlement resolving unproven allegations by OSC Staff that there were inadequacies in certain mutual fund dealers’ systems of controls and supervision which resulted in clients paying excess fees that were not detected or corrected in a timely manner, … Continue reading