Originally published by Gillian Cormier in allNovaScotia on February 1, 2019
The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear Dave Matthews’s wrongful dismissal case against Ocean Nutrition, giving the ousted executive another crack at recovering the cash incentives he lost when he left the company in 2011.
The highest court in the land announced Thursday [January 31] that Matthews’s application for leave to appeal was granted, meaning the court felt the legal issues involved were of national importance. It only grants leave to appeal to about 80 of the 600 applications presented annually.
Matthews’s lawyer, Toronto-based Howard Levitt, said Thursday the decision to hear the case showed how significant the issue around long-term incentives is.
“It shows they are obviously taking the case very seriously,” said Levitt.
Levitt noted that of 29 recent applications for leave, only Matthews will see the inside of the Supreme Court.
He said it is rare for the court to hear cases involving contract law, and usually those cases are much more narrow than the matter involving Ocean Nutrition, launched by entrepreneur John Risley in 1997.
This final legal face-off comes after Matthews exhausted all legal avenues in Nova Scotia in his seven-year legal battle with his former employer.
He originally won a $1-million-plus settlement from Ocean Nutrition in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, but a 2017 decision by the province’s Court of Appeal stripped him of the award. He wants the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn that decision.
Matthews won the money after arguing he’d been forced out of Ocean Nutrition in 2011 before he could collect a substantial long-term incentive plan award.
The award would have been triggered when Ocean Nutrition was sold on 2012 for $540 million to Dutch giant Royal DSM.
Levitt, who took over the case from Halifax lawyer Blair Mitchell, approached the top court in the fall.
Justices Michael Moldaver, Andromache Karakatsanis and Suzanne Côté received the filings from Levitt on December 31. It will be up to the entire court of nine justices to decide whether Matthews’s appeal will be granted.
Levitt argued the country’s top court should hear his client’s appeal, as it could be a test case in Canadian employment contract law.
The Omega-3 food additive firm’s counsel, Nancy Barteaux, assisted by Ottawa-based Dentons Canada LLP, claimed there is no public interest at stake as the country’s contract laws and their interpretation are very clear.