Case information

Civil procedure — Class actions — Applications for stays of actions in Alberta granted in favour of Ontario action proceeding on national basis prior to consideration of merits of certification of proposed Alberta action — May a court in British Columbia, Alberta, or Saskatchewan, faced with a proposed class proceeding in which parallel or potentially overlapping actions have been commenced in other jurisdictions, adjudicate the multijurisdictional priority issues in advance of the hearing to determine the remainder of the certification criteria? — Class Proceedings Act, S.A. 2003, c. C 16.5, s. 5 (as amended by Class Proceedings Amendment Act, 2010, S.A. 2010, c. 15).

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Proposed class proceedings were filed across the country related to an alleged price fixing conspiracy in the packaged bread market. The alleged perpetrators include the respondent corporations. Two of the proposed class proceedings were filed in Alberta by the applicant, Mr. Ravvin, and by the respondent, Ms. Pfaff. Ms. Pfaff is represented by counsel who is part of a consortium of law firms that have agreed to coordinate the claims for a national class and who have carriage of a proposed national class proceeding currently before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Mr. Ravvin’s counsel is not part of the consortium. The respondents sought a stay of both proposed class proceedings filed in Alberta, as being duplicative of the facts and matters advanced in the action in Ontario. Mr. Ravvin opposed the application to stay his action, arguing that his certification application ought to proceed before the stay application. The case management judge granted a stay of both Alberta actions. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. It was satisfied that the case management judge had a sufficient understanding of the nature and particulars of the proposed class proceeding to grant the stays.