Fresco v. CIBC – Ontario Superior Court of Justice grants summary judgment to plaintiff in overtime class action

Overview

In a series of decisions released in the spring, summer and fall of 2020, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted summary judgment to the class in an overtime class action brought on behalf of approximately 35,000 front-line employees of CIBC. The decisions represent the first merits determination in an overtime class action case in Canada and could serve as a template for future cases.

History

Fresco v. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has a long history. The claim was started 13 years ago, in 2007. In 2012, the Court of Appeal reversed the motion judge’s 2009 decision denying certification and held that the case should be certified as a class proceeding (Fresco v. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, 2012 ONCA 444). The Court of Appeal held that there were valid common issues that could be analyzed to determine if there were system-wide practices and policies at the bank that prevented class members from receiving overtime compensation, as opposed to the individual issues that may be involved by analyzing the personal circumstances in which individual class members’ claims for overtime arose. The Application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was dismissed.