Case information

Civil procedure — Class action — Authorization criteria — Existence of identical, similar or related issues of law or fact — Sexual assault — Abuse of power — Modus operandi — Whether class action for sexual assault can be authorized against individual perpetrator alone, in absence of institutional co defendant — Whether proposed class action raises identical, similar or related issues capable of significantly advancing litigation for entire class — Code of Civil Procedure, CQLR, c. C 25.01, art. 575(1).

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The applicant is a non profit legal person established to represent victims of sexual harassment, assault or abuse in a class action against the respondent. It argues that the respondent abused his power and influence to assault his victims for more than 30 years using the same modus operandi. In a split decision, the Court of Appeal allowed the respondent’s appeal and dismissed the applicant’s application for authorization to institute a class action. The majority found that the application judge had erred in law and that his assessment of the commonality of certain issues was clearly wrong. However, the dissenting judge was of the view that the judgment rendered was very well reasoned, that it addressed all the objections raised by the respondent and that no error of law or palpable error had been made in assessing the authorization criteria.