In the recent decision of Palmer v Teva Canada Ltd., Justice Perell of the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the plaintiff's motion to certify a class action against manufacturers of the anti-hypertensive drug valsartan. The...more
Product liability case law in 2021 brought clarity to certain causes of action that often form the basis of product liability claims. In particular, Ontario courts considered new duty of care categories arising within the...more
We previously discussed the Alberta Court of Appeal's decision in Ravvin v Canada Bread Company, Limited, 2020 ABCA 424, which arose out of an alleged packaged bread price-fixing conspiracy. Plaintiffs started class...more
Britton v Ford Motor Company of Canada -
A recent decision of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench addresses the challenges of considering a pre-certification application to stay a class action when the decision may impact...more
In the wake of COVID-19, which has strained already limited judicial resources, the Alberta Court of Appeal has issued a decision addressing the need for judicial economy and the avoidance of duplicative and overlapping...more
On July 17, 2019, the Law Commission of Ontario released the final report of its class action investigative project, Class Actions: Objectives, Experiences and Reforms. The project is the most comprehensive research,...more
7/26/2019
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We all love Rocky, Sandy and Scrat but, at least away from the silver screen, squirrels actually tend to be quite a nuisance. They dig holes in our lawns to bury acorns, steal from our bird-feeders and vegetable gardens,...more
In a recent case before the British Columbia Supreme Court, N&C Transportation Ltd. v. Navistar International Corp., 2016 BCSC 2129 [N&C], Justice Skolrood certified a multiple-model product liability class action after...more
On October 31, 2017, the Québec Court of Appeal released its decision in Asselin c. Desjardins Cabinet de services financiers inc., 2017 QCCA 1673. The Court of Appeal overturned the lower court’s decision refusing...more
In Spicer v Abbott Laboratories Ltd, 2017 SKQB 271 [Spicer], Justice Barrington-Foote declined to stay a class action even though parallel proceedings brought by the same counsel were dismissed in Québec, British Columbia and...more
Earlier this month a proposed class action was filed in Montreal by the Consumer Law Group alleging that Merck, Shering-Plough and Daiichi Sankyo (the Defendants) provided inadequate warnings about the drugs Olmetec and...more
The Divisonal Court’s recent decision in Dine v Biomet Inc, 2016 ONSC 4039 will be of particular interest to members of the class action bar in Ontario, as it will have implications for evidence led on certification motions....more
On December 17, 2015, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice denied certification in a proposed multiple-model product liability class action (Vester v Boston Scientific Ltd, 2015 ONSC 7950). The plaintiffs alleged that the...more
General counsel and the class action bar should take note that a new provision in Québec’s new Code of Civil Procedure (NCCP), which comes into force on January 1, 2016, may create an obstacle for streamlining—and ultimately...more
A recent decision of the Divisional Court, in which Bennett Jones and its co-counsel acted for the class, held that whether brokerage fees charged by UPS to customers receiving deliveries in Canada are unsolicited is an...more
On March 20, 2015, Justice Belobaba released his reasons in Dine v Biomet, a motion concerning the production of medical records prior to a certification motion.
The case is a proposed product liability class action...more
Certification was denied in a recent proposed multiple-model product liability class action before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in O’Brien v Bard Canada Inc. We acted for the defendants....more
Two recent decisions of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal and the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta have come to opposite conclusions regarding whether it is an abuse of process to file the same class proceeding in multiple...more
Oft-referred to as “quintessential class actions”, the majority of product liability actions that have sought certification as class proceedings in the last 10 years have been granted certification. However, two recent...more
A recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that in a multi-party lawsuit, a plaintiff that settles with only some defendants can keep the settlement amounts confidential from the non-settling defendants, at...more