[ql06] GENERAL: Toronto lawyers get $2M bonus by court order

  • From: "Kenneth Campbell [QL06]" <2kc16@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <ql06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 12:05:30 -0500

Hope yer all wearing new socks and undies and shirts and reading things
in relaxed atmospheres to re-energize you for the coming semester.

I pass this along to remind you all what we're in it for: The Big
Pay-off! Maybe dreams do come true. Coming from a small biz background,
I appreciate the joy these lawyers must have felt. Working so hard,
keeping faith in the pay-off... sticking together... and getting it.

Imagine that... liking what you do, and actually getting paid extremely
well to do it.

Ken.

--
In a time of universal deceit, telling
the truth is a revolutionary act.
          -- George Orwell

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Toronto lawyers get $2M bonus by court order
Reward for federal fight

Andrew McIntosh
National Post
December 26, 2003


OTTAWA - The federal government has been ordered to pay a $2-million
bonus to Toronto lawyers who successfully sued a Crown corporation and
won over $70-million in compensation by proving that senior bureaucrats
conspired to nearly destroy an Ontario company while defrauding the U.S.
government.

Mr. Justice John O'Driscoll of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
ordered the government and its Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) to
pay the lawyers, led by Robert Taylor, Lisa Bolton and John Collins, the
$2-million "premium" for representing Amertek Inc. and its investors in
a six-year legal battle.

The bonus is in addition to the $3.2-million in legal fees and $792,457
in other disbursements the CCC was ordered to repay the Toronto lawyers,
who worked on the complex and lengthy Amertek case since 1996 without
ever getting paid.

"Hope is the only recompense the plaintiff's lawyers received for a
number of years; there was no gas in the tank, they ran on fumes," Mr.
Justice O'Driscoll wrote. "The evidence and submissions have persuaded
me the plaintiffs are entitled to be paid a substantial premium by the
government defendants," he added.

The judge handed down the ruling just as the courts closed before
Christmas.

John Collins, one of the Toronto lawyers who will share the bonus, was
ecstatic.

"The judge has given us a Christmas present," he told the National Post.

CCC officials did not return calls seeking their comment.

It is not the first time a judge has ordered a defendant in a lawsuit to
pay the plaintiffs' lawyers a premium for doing excellent work in a
complex, risky case.

But it is believed to be the largest premium ever awarded, Mr. Taylor
said.

"With this ruling, the court is trying to reward lawyers for taking on
high-risk, difficult cases when they succeed and get a great result,"
Mr. Taylor said. "The court also wants to encourage defendants to settle
if they have a bad case, instead of rolling the dice and fighting it all
the way."

In a scathing ruling handed down in August, Judge O'Driscoll ordered the
CCC and the Attorney-General of Canada to pay US$26.5 million plus
interest and other damages dating from 1985 to Amertek Inc. and two
investors, Dr. Victor Mele and the estate of Dr. William Forder. (What
is left of Amertek is now known as Shu-Pak Equipment of Guelph.)

Following a marathon trial, the judge concluded that Amertek Inc., once
a maker of fire rescue truck bodies, and its backers were unsuspecting
victims of "shocking behaviour on the part of federal civil servants,
behaviour that would cause the reasonably informed person to lose
confidence in a Crown corporation and a department of the federal
government."

Canadian Commercial Corporation is a little known Crown corporation that
guarantees all Canada-U.S. military contracts by checking out Canadian
bidders and ensuring they have the financial and technical strength to
honour their deals.

CCC officials at one point sought the consent of U.S. Army officials to
substitute Amertek for a troubled Quebec truck firm called Walter,
telling U.S. military brass that Amertek had the money and technical
savvy to finish the big contract. (Walter had gone bankrupt just weeks
after winning the U.S. Army contract.)

In reality, CCC officials felt Amertek could not handle the deal and
said as much in internal reports, but concealed that from both Amertek
and the U.S. Army

"This was fraud on the U.S. Government, a third party," Mr. Justice
O'Driscoll wrote.

Throughout the dispute, CCC employees and its lawyers characterized
their conduct towards Amertek as that of "sincere and dedicated public
servants."

Mr. Justice O'Driscoll took issue with the claim, ruling that CCC
officials withheld information from Amertek about the big U.S. military
contract it urged the firm to take that eventually led to its demise,
all to save itself from paying substantial penalties to the U.S.
military.

The judge even questioned the attitude of the Crown corporation's top
executive after an e-mail from one CCC staffer surfaced as damaging
evidence at the marathon trial.

"Sink the suckers. They are out on the plank. Let's keep them walking,"
one senior CCC bureaucrat wrote, urging his bosses to drive Amertek into
bankruptcy.

Mr. Justice O'Driscoll said if that type of behaviour was sincere and
dedicated, "the conduct which spawned this lawsuit will continue
unabated unless the person at the helm changes or is changed."

The president of the Canadian Commercial Corporation is Douglas
Patriquin. He was its former chief operating officer and was involved
with the lawsuit for years.

Despite filing a notice of appeal, the CCC has yet to comment on Mr.
Justice O'Driscoll's criticisms of its actions or those of its
president, other than denying in court papers that it withheld
information from Amertek.

Amertek was all but wiped out, one of its investors is now dead and
hundreds of jobs at the Amertek plant were all lost because of the CCC's
conduct.

The CCC has appealed the August ruling.


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