Ontario Court Awards US$192 million American Judgment
Former Executive Ordered to Pay Aggrieved Investors
This story was profiled in Law Times. See: Ontario Court Awards US$192 million American Judgment (pdf).
UPDATE Sept 12, 2007 - A panel of three justices of the Ontario Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed Mr. Winger's appeal to have the decision of Justice Hoilett dismissed. Mr. Zvulony successfully defended the class of investors before the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Toronto, ON March 20 2007 -- A Judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently ordered a former executive living in Ontario, to pay more than $200 million US dollars to aggrieved investors. The judgment is believed to be the highest ever awarded by a Canadian court. "To my knowledge, a judicial award of this magnitude is unprecedented in Canada", said commercial litigator Gil Zvulony, the Toronto lawyer representing the investors. "The interest alone is almost $30,000 per day".
In July of 2005, the investors obtained a judgment in a United States securities class action lawsuit for securities fraud, against Kenneth W. Winger (see http://www.gelaw.com/safetykleen.cfm and http://securities.stanford.edu/1025/SK00-02/ for background information on the underlying dispute). Mr. Winger was the director, CEO, and President of Safety Kleen Corporation. The investors then sued Mr. Winger for recognition and enforcement in Ontario of the $192 million US class action judgment and approximately $8 million US in accumulated interest. Mr. Winger argued, among other reasons, that recognizing and enforcing the US judgment would be contrary to the public policy of Ontario because the amount of the judgment was "astronomical".
On March 14, 2007, Mr. Justice Hoilett dismissed Winger's argument as "irrelevant" and granted judgment in favour of the investors for the full amount, in the case of State Street Research Income Trust et al. v. Winger (Ontario court file #05-CV-302523 PD1). "This decision highlights, in a dramatic form, how far Canadian courts have come in recent years to recognizing and enforcing judgments from United States courts.", said Mr. Zvulony.
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Gil Zvulony is an internet and commercial litigator and the founder of Zvulony & Co. P.C., a Toronto based law firm. He has discussed legal issues of interest to the public in various radio, television, and print outlets.
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