Manitoba Court Of Appeal Stays Duplicative Class Action

In Hafichuk-Walkin v. BCE, the Manitoba Court of Appeal upheld the lower court's decision to unconditionally stay a class action commenced in Manitoba by Merchant Law Group in 2004 alleging various telecommunications providers had been improperly charging their wireless phone customers "system access" fees each month. Merchant had issued actions in nine provinces, which at the time included provinces that had both opt-in and opt-out class action legislation. Merchant only moved the Saskatchewan action forward, and it was certified as a national opt-in class action, pursuant to Saskatchewan legislation. In 2008, Saskatchewan changed its legislation to provide for opt-out class actions, but Merchant was unable to convert the certified Saskatchewan action to a national opt-out class action. Subsequent to this loss, the defendants successfully moved to have the Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia class actions stayed as an abuse of process.