Tag Archive for: Canada

Canadian National Class Action Judgment Not Recognized in Quebec

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The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed the decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal in Canada Post Corp. v. Lepine (available here).  The decision flows from Canada Post’s termination, after only a year, of a lifetime internet service it sold to customers.  This led to class proceedings in Quebec and Ontario.  While aware of the proceedings in Quebec, the parties settled the class proceedings in Ontario in a judgment that purported to cover residents of Quebec.  When the Quebec proceedings continued (due to dissatifaction with what was obtained under the Ontario settlement) the defendant sought to have the Ontario judgment recognized in Quebec.

Recognition of foreign judgments in Quebec is governed by Art 3155 of the Civil Code, and so this case is very centrally concerned both with civil law (rather than common law) and with interpreting the specific provisions of the Code.  Art 3155 provides several bases for refusing to recognize a foreign judgment (see para. 22).  

The first issue is whether the Ontario court had jurisdiction to grant the judgment.  The Supreme Court of Canada devotes the most attention to this issue because it raises an interesting question within Quebec’s law on recognition.  Quebec uses the “mirror principle” for assessing jurisdiction, and so would consider whether the foreign court had taken jurisdiction in accord with Quebec’s own approach to taking jurisdiction.  That approach includes the doctrine of forum non conveniens.  So this raised the issue of whether the Quebec court could hold that, because Ontario did not stay the proceedings at least as they concerned residents of Quebec, it did not have jurisdiction in the sense contemplated by the Code (para. 27).  The Supreme Court of Canada rejects this approach: forum non conveniens issues are not to be considered in assessing the foreign court’s jurisdiction (paras. 34-37).  The Ontario court had jurisdiction.

The second issue is whether the Ontario judgment contravened fundamental principles of procedure.  Here the court holds that the class proceeding notices provided to residents of Quebec under the Ontario judgment were deficient.  On the facts, this is an understandable conclusion: there is no question that the notices could have been clearer, especially as concerned the relation between the Ontario and Quebec proceedings (para. 45).  This conclusion, in itself, is sufficient to resolve the case.

Third, Art 3155 provides a defence to recognition where essentially the same proceeding as that giving rise to the judgment is pending before the Quebec courts.  Canada Post had advanced its argument based on a somewhat technical distinction between a proceeding seeking certification for a class action and the subsequently-certified action (para. 53) but the court rejected this distinction (para. 54).  This aspect of the decision, interpreting Art 3155(4), could prove very important to the future of so-called national class actions in Canada, since it would then seem that as long as proceedings had started in Quebec, a decision from another province purporting to cover Quebec residents in the same class action would not be recognized in Quebec.  This gives residents of Quebec a protection residents of the other provinces do not have.

This is a welcome decision on the first issue, an understandable decision on the second issue, and a decision that requires more consideration on the third issue.

Consultation Paper on Jurisdiction

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The Law Commission of Ontario has released a consultation paper written by Professor Janet Walker (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University).  The paper (available here) proposes that Ontario’s current law on the taking and retaining of jurisdiction in civil matters is in need of reform.  It offers a proposed statute which would reform the law in this area.  The proposals have some common elements with the Uniform Law Conference of Canada’s model statute, the Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings Transfer Act (available here), but also some important differences.

The Law Commission welcomes comments on the paper, and the process for commenting is explained in the paper.  Beyond this, those generally interested in how countries resolve issues of jurisdiction in civil matters should find the points raised in the paper of interest.

To date three Canadian provinces have moved away from the traditional approach, which is based on a combination of common law and rules of civil procedure, and have brought into force the Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings Transfer Act (British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia).  Some other provinces have enacted the statute but not yet brought it into force, and some other provinces are considering adopting it.

Supreme Court of Canada Addresses Role of Parallel Proceedings in Stay Applications

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Canada’s highest court has delivered its judgment in Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. v. Lloyd’s Underwriters (available here).  The decision is quite brief and upholds the decision of both courts below, leaving some to wonder why leave to appeal was granted.

Teck has mining and smelting operations in British Columbia.  In 2004 it was sued in Washington State for environmental property damage caused by the discharge of waste material into the Columbia River, which flows from Teck’s Canadian operations into the United States.  Teck notified its insurers, looking to them to defend the claim, but they refused.

Teck therefore sued the insurers in Washington State to establish its entitlement under the insurance policies.  The insurers sued Teck in British Columbia to establish their lack of responsibility under the same policies.  So the issue became where the coverage issue would be resolved.

Stay applications were brought in both coverage actions.  The application failed in the United States.  It also failed in the courts of British Columbia, but those decisions were appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Teck wanted Canada’s highest court to take a different approach to applications for a stay in cases where a foreign court has already positively asserted jurisdiction.  This position was framed in a couple of different ways, but its essence was that the parallel proceedings should be an overriding and determinative factor in the analysis.  The court rejected that position, confirming that parallel proceedings are only one factor among many to be considered.

The court’s decision is under s. 11 of the Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings Transfer Act, S.B.C. 2003, c. 28.  However, the court confirms that s. 11 is a codification of the common law doctrine of forum non conveniens, and so the reasoning should apply equally in provinces which have not adopted a jurisdiction statute (though it would have been helpful for the court to have expressly made this clear).

Most of the decision is unobjectionable and clear.  One point to consider, however, is the court’s reference (in para. 3o) to a distinction between interprovincial cases and international cases.  This raises the possibility that different considerations could arise as between sister provinces.  A refusal to stay proceedings in one province might be treated as determinative of the issue in another, in part because of the possibility of appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada and its binding effect on all provinces, and in part if the other province were required to recognize the admittedly interlocutory decision on the stay application.  Both of these are debatable issues, and the orthodoxy would suggest that parallel proceedings in a sister province remain just one factor in the analysis.  More guidance from the court on this question would have been welcome.