Banman v Ontario & Grozelle v Corby Spirit and Wine Limited: A Stricter Test for Preferability
By Victoria Delicata, 2L The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has offered its first interpretation of the legislative amendments to the certification test. As outlined by Justice Perell in Banman v Ontario (“Banman”), and reaffirmed by Justice Akbarali in Grozelle v Corby Spirit and Wine Limited (“Grozelle v Corby Spirit”), the new preferable procedure criteria create a more “rigorous” and “stricter” threshold for proposed representative plaintiffs to meet. It is important to inquire about what this stricter test means for those pursuing certification of an action as a class proceeding. Outline of the New Amendments Section 5(1.1) of the Class Proceedings Act, 1992 now dictates that a class proceeding will be the preferable procedure to resolve common issues only if (a) it is superior to all reasonable alternatives for addressing the claim and for determining whether class members should obtain relief, and (b) the common issues of the proposed class
