We are pleased to announce that the proposed settlement, concluding the final subsidiary claims in the employment action was approved by the BC Supreme Court on Thursday June 19, 2008. Please note that the Pension Class Action has not been settled and continues to be advanced by us on behalf of the Pension Classes.
The Court commented that the Plaintiff’s had “challenges” if they had gone forward to trial with this, and in the circumstances the settlement was “fair and reasonable”. The thrust of the Court’s comments was that this was a good outcome/smart settlement for the Plaintiffs. The Court noted that the Plaintiffs had counsel with a great deal of experience in this area negotiating this settlement and commented that the settlement was achieved after the Plaintiffs had explored the issues through extensive document production and Examination for Discovery.
On legal fees, the Court noted that a great deal of legal effort was expended and that $52,200 was a reasonable fee. The Court noted that disbursements incurred were almost $36,000, out of which 2/3 was attributed to this part of the case. She therefore approved disbursements in the amount of $23,896.26.
We are working closely with Representative Plaintiff Peter Gregg and with counsel for Freightliner to establish a final list of amounts to be paid to “Exempt employees” who are class members and who worked during the year 2002 and who did not receive a bonus. We are also working to ensure we have current mailing addresses for all those persons. Freightliner will be mailing the cheques, after withholding Income tax as required by law.