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ARTICLE · 08 JANUARY 2019

Ontario's Top Court Dismisses Class Action Against Auditor

Affleck Greene McMurtry LLP
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In its unanimous decision in Lavender v. Miller Bernstein LLP released on September 5, 2018, the Court of Appeal for Ontario made it clear that notwithstanding the liability imposed by the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") in the recent auditor's negligence case of Livent v. Deloitte & Touche.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Kenneth Dekker
Kenneth Dekker
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In its unanimous decision in Lavender v. Miller Bernstein LLP  released on September 5, 2018, the Court of Appeal for Ontario made it clear that notwithstanding the liability imposed by the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") in the recent auditor's negligence case of Livent v. Deloitte & Touche, the reasoning of the SCC in Livent  will make it rare for an auditor on a limited retainer to be held liable to anyone other than its audit client, such as investors, clients or other stakeholders of the audit client.

In Lavender, the Court of Appeal heard an appeal from Mr. Justice Belobaba's summary judgment that the former auditor of defunct securities dealer, Buckingham Securities, was liable for former Buckingham clients' losses suffered when Buckingham was placed into receivership and then shut down.  Miller Bernstein was alleged to have been negligent in auditing Form 9 Reports filed with the OSC as part of Buckingham's annual registration renewal –

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