Case information

Civil procedure — Pleadings — Parties — Joinder — Motion to add financial institutions as defendants and to amend claims allowed by Court of Appeal — Whether amendments to assert new causes of action based on previously known, but not pleaded, facts can be allowed, notwithstanding expiry of applicable limitation period — Before granting leave to amend a pleading after expiry of limitation period, what relationship must amendments have to facts previously pleaded — When does plaintiff have actual knowledge of claim sufficient to trigger running of limitation period in matters involving overlapping regulatory, criminal or civil proceedings — Whether lower court erred in joining parties —What is appropriate standard for determining when knowledge of certain facts amounts to knowledge of material facts to support plausible inference of liability, and what role does suspicion play in analysis.

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The respondents moved to amend their pleadings, under Rules 5.04(2) and 26.02 of the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure, in a class action brought against the applicants, a number of financial institutions, for conspiracy to fix the market and the trading prices of gold and silver over a period of years. The action claims that the applicant institutions used various illegal methods and practices to fix the prices, depriving the class of the actual value of their trades.

The amendments sought to add a number of financial institutions as defendants and to amend the claims against the existing defendants. The motion judge dismissed the motion in its entirety.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, set aside the order of the motion judge, allowed the amendments to the statements of claim and joined the parties.