IAMAW District Lodge 140 v. Air Canada 06-23

TGC lawyer Kemily Ho succeeded on a judicial review of an arbitrator’s decision that a long-term Air Canada employee should be terminated for cause for taking discarded nuts from a first class cabin.

In setting aside the arbitrator’s decision, the Judge expressed “grave doubts” about the arbitrator’s assessment of the employee’s conduct and found that the decision “failed to address” basic questions such as whether the employee’s conduct was so serious as to justify termination after years of service.

TGC lawyers have experience dealing with termination for cause. If you are an employer or an employee dealing with such a situation then you can contact us here.

Continue Reading

S.D. vs Canada Shineray (Costs Decision)

Martin Sheard and Steven Barker were successful on a recent application for the costs of a trial for wrongful dismissal.

Martin and Steven successfully represented the plaintiff at trial and were now applying to Court for an order that the defendant, and its trial counsel, pay the plaintiff the costs of trial.

In the result, the Court ordered that the defendant had to pay costs on an elevated scale. This means that the costs that the defendant had to pay to the plaintiff were calculated on a scale that was higher than the scale normally used to calculate costs.

The Court found that: “the manner in which the defendant conducted this litigation turned a matter of ordinary difficulty into one of more than ordinary difficulty”.

The Court also ordered that the defendant’s trial counsel, who came from a different firm, should be personally liable for part of the defendant’s costs as he “caused costs to be incurred without reasonable cause through delay and neglect”. It is rare for the Court to award costs against counsel in this fashion.

If you believe that you have been wrongfully dismissed you should contact the experienced lawyers at TGC.

Continue Reading

S.D. v Canada Shineray

This case involved a rare award of wrongful dismissal, aggravated damages, and just cause allegations.

Steve Barker and Martin Sheard were successful counsel on the case.

The defence of just cause failed.

Aggravated damages are not commonly awarded in employment law cases. That being so, they were appropriate here and our client was most deserving.

The case also involved an argument for the invalidation of a termination clause due to its apparently pre-emptive circumvention of the Employment Standards Act and the Human Rights Code. This argument was not successful because in the court’s view the clause in question was intended to have narrow application, regardless of its broad wording.

Continue Reading

Maxwell v. British Columbia, 2014 BCCA 339 (CanLII)

Blair Curtis represented Ms. Maxwell at the Court of Appeal. He succeeded in maintaining the severance award (over $330,000.00 including interest) he obtained for her at trial. The decision in this case clarified the law in British Columbia regarding the absence of a duty to mitigate in respect of certain written employment contracts.

Continue Reading

Nicholls v. Columbia Taping Tools Ltd., 2014 BCSC 1428

Martin successfully defended against an application to apportion the costs of the trial. The award was made on the basis that Martin had been the “substantially successful party” although he had not made out one of the heads of relief he had claimed. In the result, Martin’s client was awarded $17,000 in costs plus disbursements on the basis of success at trial.

Continue Reading