CANADA – In Lavender v. Miller Bernstein, 2017 ONSC 3958, a recent class action decision of the Ontario Superior Court, the auditor of a now-insolvent securities dealer was found liable for financial losses sustained by the dealer’s clients. The decision of Justice Belobaba focuses on the question: does an auditor have a duty of care to its client’s clients, including where there is no direct relationship with or reliance by these third party clients?

The dealer, Buckingham Securities (the “Dealer”), held the investments of roughly 1000 retail customers (the “Class Members”). The defendant auditors, Miller Bernstein LLP (the “Auditor”), was found to have negligently signed-off on Form 9 reports, which are filed annually with the Ontario Securities Commission (the “OSC”), the provincial securities regulator, to ensure compliance with segregation of assets and minimum free capital requirements. The Dealer had not segregated the Class Members’ funds, which it later misappropriated causing an alleged loss of $10.6 million. These facts were later admitted by the Auditor in disciplinary proceedings against the Auditor.

CANADA – Concurrent class proceedings can raise procedural and substantive issues, chief among which is how to avoid conflicting judicial determinations from separate courts adjudicating on the same issue. When seeking approval from multiple courts of a global class action settlement, one approach may be to have the various courts preside over the same hearing.

A recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Endean v. British Columbia, 2016 SCC 42 (“Endean“) held that judges of superior courts from different provinces may sit together to hear a motion arising out of concurrent class proceedings in their respective jurisdictions.

In Canada, superior courts are those with general rather than statutorily-granted jurisdiction. There is a separate superior court in each Canadian province.

The Endean decision arose from three concurrent class proceedings which had been commenced in the superior courts of Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec on behalf of individuals infected with Hepatitis C through the Canadian blood supply. It was common ground that each superior court had personal and subject-matter jurisdiction over the parties and issues in their respective proceedings.

All three actions were ultimately certified. The Ontario class included residents in every province except British Columbia and Quebec, meaning all affected Canadians were class members to one of the proceedings.