When Can An Employment Agreement Be Voided for Duress?

Originally published at irvinschein.com.

The recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court in Riskie v. Sony of Canada Ltd. provides a useful reminder of the way in which the court will deal with an employment agreement where the employee later complains that he executed the agreement under duress.

In this case, Mr. Riskie was a management level employee of Sony of Canada Ltd. based in Toronto. He began working at Sony in 1989 without a written employment agreement. He lived and worked in Toronto.

In the spring of 2014, after having worked at Sony for about 25 years, he announced that his wife had obtained new employment and that he and his family were planning to move to Ottawa. He asked whether he could continue in his existing job from his home in Ottawa notwithstanding that there were a number of Toronto-based employees reporting to him.