Case information

Labour relations — Jurisdiction — Collective agreement — Civil procedure — Class actions — Declinatory exception — Lower courts disagreeing about whether Superior Court has jurisdiction to determine dispute involving changes to flight passes issued to airline retirees — Whether the essential character of a dispute not specifically referenced in a collective agreement is beyond the jurisdiction of a provincial superior court — Whether the Court of Appeal majority erred regarding arbitral jurisdiction under the framework set out in Weber v. Ontario, [1995] 2 S.C.R. 929 — Whether a collective agreement can aid in determining the appropriate jurisdiction.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Carole Davies commenced a class action against Air Canada for breaching its contractual obligation to provide retired employees travel passes when it starting to issue priority passes to active employees.

The Superior Court dismissed Air Canada’s motion to dismiss the claim, ruling that the Superior Court had jurisdiction to hear the dispute. The majority of the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal in part, ruling that only an arbitrator appointed under the collective agreement had jurisdiction to hear the dispute with respect to class members who were unionized prior to retirement. A dissenting judge would have dismissed the claim and concluded that the Superior Court had the jurisdiction to hear the case for all class members.