Cases
Avelin v. Aya Lasers Inc.
Given the apparent financial fragility of the appellant, it would not be fair to the respondent to prevent her from taking whatever steps are open to her to execute on the judgment.
Genesis Fertility Centre Inc. v. Yuzpe, 2019 BCSC 233
This case arises from the breakdown in relations among a group of physicians, the plaintiff, Dr. Sonya Kashyap, and the defendants Dr. Abraham Albert Yuzpe, Dr. Elizabeth Taylor and Dr. Jason Hitkari, who practiced reproductive medicine together in the City of Vancouver.
Corey v. Kruger Products L.P., 2018 BCSC 1510
Blair represented our client, Mr. Corey, in BC Supreme Court and obtained an award of 8 months of pay in lieu of notice. The Court rejected the employer’s position that 3 months was sufficient in light of our client’s short service.
Our client was 57 years old at the time of his dismissal and had worked for the employer for 2.5 years in a supervisory (first tier of management) role. The employer’s argument that any notice award our client received from the Court should be reduced for the possibility that he would find a job after the trial (a “contingency” reduction) was also rejected by the Court. The Court considered the employer’s argument – based on government statistics of unemployment rates – that our client was no worse off in the job market at age 57 than a younger person would be; however, Blair’s “cogent” arguments against the application of such statistics convinced the Court otherwise.
In the result, Blair obtained for our client an 8-month award comprised of: salary, expected overtime pay, employer pension contributions, medical expenses, interest, and costs.
Nowak v Biocomposites Inc., 2018 BCSC 785
Blair represented an employee who brought a wrongful dismissal lawsuit in British Columbia against his former employer.
The employer applied for an order that the British Columbia Court decline jurisdiction in favour of the courts of North Carolina. The employer argued that the employee had been provided with an employment contract after he started working that said that his employment was governed by the employer-friendly laws of North Carolina and subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of North Carolina.
Blair defeated the employer’s application and kept the case in British Columbia, and the decision clarified a number of important points of law.
The Court found that the employer did not have consideration for a new employment contract presented after the employee had already started work simply because the employer had included some fringe benefits in the new contract.
The Court applied the Douez v. Facebook decision of the Supreme Court of Canada to an employment context for the first time ever in British Columbia, and in doing so confirmed that assessing a forum selection clause in a contract (a clause that stipulates where disputes must be brought/heard) requires consideration of all the circumstances including convenience, fairness, interests of justice, public policy, and the unequal bargaining power employees have when negotiating contracts with employers.
Finally, the Court confirmed that a termination provision in an employment contract is void if it would have become contrary to the statutory minimums at a future date even if the provision complied with those minimums at the time of termination. This is important law in British Columbia, which the Court in this case set out in a clear and decisive way.
E.P. v. SAP Canada
Blair Curtis worked on this case to obtain a judgment for 12 months’ notice for his client, who was a 45 year old manager with just under 10 years of service.
Madam Justice Beames ruled that the employee was entitled to compensation for the following items on top of his base salary for his notice period: a pro-rata portion of an annual bonus; employer contributions through a stock option plan; and pension contributions.
The judge rejected the former employer’s argument that the employee had failed to mitigate his losses.