Topic: Class actions

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Ontario Superior Court Grants Costs Exceeding $1 million to Successful Defendants in “Entrepreneurial” Class Action

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

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

Mitigating Securities Litigation Risk From Software Problems

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

No Room for Double Talk: The Ontario Court of Appeal Addresses Restatements, the Reasonable Investigation Defence and the Test for Leave in Rahimi v. SouthGobi Resources Ltd.

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

The Horror Show Continues: Application of the Limitation Period in s. 138.14 of the Ontario Securities Act in Kaynes v BP, PLC

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

Third party litigation funding of class actions in Ontario: “A work in progress”

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

You Get it Right and it’s Still a Misrepresentation: the Paradox in Pretium

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

Dual-listed companies beware

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

OSC Approves Its 9th No Contest Settlement

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
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