Written by: Irvin Schein

The recent decision of the Superior Court in McGregor v. Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. provides a number of important insights into key aspects of employment litigation.

McGregor had been employed for 25 years by GT French Paper.  He held the title of Vice President of Sales when that employment ended.  He had signed a restrictive covenant prohibiting him from competing in the same business for 18 months.

Just cause is difficult enough to establish in the best of circumstances.

After the end of that employment, he approached the Defendant, Atlantic Packaging, for employment.  Atlantic was a competitor of GT French.  He was hired as a branch manager in a new plant opened by Atlantic Packaging in April, 2005.  He was terminated without any suggestion of just cause about 2 ½ years later at which time he was offered a severance package.  He did not accept the severance package and started this lawsuit in February, 2008.  Over two years later, in April 2010, Atlantic amended its Statement of Defence to allege just cause for the first time. 

When the matter reached trial, the only defence put forward by Atlantic was that of just cause.  Atlantic argued that McGregor had made fraudulent misrepresentations during the hiring process as to sales revenues that would be realized by Atlantic Packaging if he were brought on board. 

The first aspect of the case that is of interest has to do with the nature of the evidence of both sides, which conflicted in a number of important respects. 

Simply put, the trial judge preferred the evidence of McGregor where these conflicts arose.  She found that on critical issues, his evidence was corroborated by e-mails, memos or other documents.  Read more of this post