LOLG Successfully Resists Supreme Court of Canada Leave Applications
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Matthew Gottlieb and Brad Vermeersch successfully resisted two applications for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada from a decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario concerning the application of limitation periods to representative proceedings and the courts’ jurisdiction to hear matters governed by a collective agreement. The Court of Appeal for Ontario overturned a decision of the Superior Court that suspended a limitation period for a representative proceeding. In the same decision, the Court upheld another related but separate decision of the Superior Court that correctly decided that legal proceedings governed by a collective agreement are not within the jurisdiction of the courts. The Supreme Court of Canada refused leave to hear either matter. The Court of Appeal’s decision, which can be found at
http://www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions/2018/2018ONCA0671.pdf, is an important reminder to litigants that limitations periods are substantive rights that courts will enforce unless there is express legislation that suspends their operation.