by Brian Smeenk

On October 9, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in RBC Dominion Securities v. Merrill Lynch Canada. The court restored an award of approximately $1.5 million in damages against a branch manager who had coordinated the defection of almost all his branch’s sales group from RBC to Merrill Lynch.

In November 2000, the branch manager at RBC’s Cranbrook, British Columbia, office coordinated the defection of virtually all of the branch investment advisers and administrative staff. The branch manager, eight of 10 investment advisers, and five of seven administrative assistants all resigned without giving notice to RBC and joined Merrill Lynch. Only two very junior investment advisers, an office administrator, and a receptionist were left at RBC.

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by Brian Smeenk

Employers with operations in Canada may well ask: “What’s going on up there? What will Canada’s federal election mean for business? How is the world financial crisis playing out there?”

It would appear that the most accurate answer to these questions, at this time at least, would be a typically understated Canadian one: “Everything is stable.”

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by Brian Smeenk

In an important recent decision, Ontario’s Court of Appeal has reconfirmed that noncompetition clauses will be enforced against departing employees only in exceptional circumstances. It allowed two insurance salespersons to take many of their clients to a competing insurance broker despite their contractual agreement to the contrary.

What happened?
Tim Allan and Jeff Kienapple worked for H.L. Staebler Company Limited. They sold commercial insurance (property, casualty, and automobile) to businesses. Because they were unhappy with new management, they resigned and immediately began working in a similar capacity for Stevenson & Hunt Insurance Brokers.

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by Karen Sargeant

As we reported earlier this year, 2007 saw three overtime class action lawsuits in Canada — a $651 million class-action lawsuit filed against the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), followed quickly by a $20 million class action against KPMG and then a $350 million class action against a second major Canadian Bank, Scotiabank. Another class action, for $250 million, was filed against CN Railway in March 2008.

In September, the Ontario Superior Court approved a settlement of the KPMG case, making it the first of the class-action lawsuits to be settled. To resolve the class action, KPMG agreed to an overtime redress plan.

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