Case information

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Civil procedure - Class actions - Costs - Environmental law - Waste management - Whether courts below erred in concluding that container recycling fee could be approved by provincial government - Whether courts below erred in concluding that Minister acting under Beverage Container Stewardship Programme Regulation, B.C. Reg. 406/97, could authorize private party to retain unredeemed deposit surplus - Whether courts below erred in failing to consider impact on public interest litigants of pre-certification costs awards in class actions.

The Applicant plaintiffs initiated a proceeding under the Class Proceedings Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 50, against the Respondent corporate defendants. In essence the plaintiffs plead that deposits for beverage containers collected by sellers from consumers were to be held in trust until refunded to the consumer. They plead that from 1998 to 2004, the defendants converted $70,000,000 in deposit money to their own benefit in breach of the trust obligation they jointly owed to consumers. The plaintiffs further plead that in 1999, Encorp began to impose an environmental levy known as the Container Recycling Fee (“CRF”) without authority under the Beverage Container Stewardship Programme Regulation, B.C. Reg. 406/97.

The defendants brought a summary trial application under Rule 18A of the Supreme Court Rules to dismiss the claims of the plaintiffs with costs. The plaintiffs also brought a Rule 18A application for judgment against the defendants.