Tina Giesbrecht, a lawyer at McCarthy Tetrault LLP in Calgary, has written a paper on, "Fiduciary Duties: Obligations of Departing Employees" (March 2009). The paper was prepared for the Legal Education Society of Alberta. 

RBC Dominion Securities Inc. v. Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., 2008 SCC 54

Stikeman Elliot's May 2008 Employment Law Update is on "The Whistleblower and his Obligation of Loyalty".  The article discusses the duty of loyalty owed by an employee in Quebec under article 2088 of the Quebec Civil Code and a case in which an employee was dismissed for disclosing to a journalist the presence of asbestos in government buildings and the existence of cases of asbestosis.

Lawyers at Davis LLP have written a paper entitled "Fiduciary Duties of Directors and Officers Relating to Corporate Opportunities" (April 14, 2008).

Mr. McKay resigned from the plaintiff VSM in September 2007 after 19 years of employment.

Before leaving VSM, he signed a release in which he acknowledged that he owed a fiduciary duty to VSM and that VSM would suffer irreparable harm if its confidential or unique information was disclosed without authorization.

Mr. McKay then commenced employment with VSM's competitor, Elekta.

VSM subsequently sued Mr. McKay and Elekta, alleging that they conspired to use confidential information to obtain an unfair competitive advantage and that Mr. McKay breached his fiduciary duty.

In response to the 54-paragraph Statement of Claim, the defendants filed a one paragraph Statement of Defence and then brought a motion seeking "particulars" of the claim. The Defendants' position was that they needed the particulars to file a responsive Defence and to delineate the issues at trial.

The court, agreeing with the plaintiff, ruled that the defendants' motion should be adjourned until the plaintiffs had conducted its Examinations for Discovery. If the defendants still wanted particulars at that time, they would be at liberty to re-apply.  read more »

In Stenner v. ScotiaMcleod  2007 BCSC 1377, the court discussed the duties owed by employees in the financial services industry when they switch brokerage houses.

Facts

The plaintiff was a financial consultant and investment advisor who had gained some prominence through a radio show.

He had moved his "book of business" (i.e., client accounts) to what is now Merril Lynch in 1995 and then to National Bank Financial ("NFB") in 2000.

One of the individual defendants was the plaintiff's daughter. She had started working for her father in 1991, had followed him when he changed brokerage houses, and continued to acquire a greater role in growing and managing the plaintiff's "book of business" as the years went by.

The other individual defendants were the daughter's husband and an administrative employee.

The plaintiff and the individual defendants were all employees of NBF at the time in question, and each received a salary and employee benefits from NBF.  read more »

In the recent decision of McMahon v. TCG International Inc., 2007 BCSC 1003, the BC Supreme Court set out what the employee's implied duty of fidelity and good faith has been taken to encompass. Specifically, the court stated:

It is well established that employees owe their employers an implied duty of fidelity and good faith.  This was described succinctly in CRC-Evans Canada Ltd. v. Pettifer (1997), 197 A.R. 24 at para. 45 (Alta. Q.B):  read more »

North Bay Newspaper Guild v. North Bay Nugget, [2005] O.L.A.A. No. 476 (QL) (Luborsky)

In a recent case - Axiom Services Ltd. v. Weigert, 2005 BCSC 145 - the B.C. Supreme Court discussed an employee's duty of fidelity and good faith, both during the employment relationship and after, in relation to clients and client lists. The court noted that:  read more »

Raymond F. Leach has written a paper entitled, "The Concept and Application of Fiduciary Duty in the Realm of Securities Brokers and their Client Relations" (April 30, 2004). He is a lawyer at Siskind, Cromarty, Ivey & Dowler.