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Supreme Court win in Francine Bourdon et. al. v. Stelco

Date Closed

June 10, 2005

Lead Office

Montréal

On June 10, 2005, the Supreme Court dismissed the plaintiffs’ appeal in a unanimous decision of the full court.

Following the partial wind-up of the Stelco pension plan, the Appellants, a group of former Stelco employees from Quebec, argued that they were entitled to grow-in benefits under section 74 of the Ontario Pension Benefits Act, which expressly limits its application to ‘members in Ontario’. The Quebec employees based their claim on the choice of law clause in the pension plan designating Ontario law as the applicable law, arguing that it entitled them to all of the benefits under the Pension Benefits Act, including those set out in section 74. Under the Memorandum of Reciprocal Agreement, which regulates the administration of pension plans covering employees in more than one province, the partial wind-up was overseen by the Ontario pension authority. Rather than contesting the decision of the Superintendent of Pensions of Ontario approving the partial wind-up report, the Quebec employees brought a parallel action against Stelco in the Quebec Superior Court, claiming approximately $500,000 in additional pension benefits. In addition, the cost of potential liabilities towards other employees and the additional amounts that would have been necessary to fund the pension plan would have amounted to several hundred thousand dollars.

McCarthy Tétrault advised Stelco with a team that was led by Chantal Masse.

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