Take me out to the ball game

par Marie-Hélène Beaudoin
McCarthy Tétrault

Dans Spina v. Shoppers Drug Mart Inc., 2012 ONSC 5563, la Cour supérieure de justice de l’Ontario était saisie d’une demande d’autorisation de recours collectif en matière de franchise. Nous ne nous attarderons pas ici sur le fond de la décision, mais plutôt sur la métaphore employée pour décrire le rôle du juge au stade de l’autorisation d’un recours collectif. En effet, il peut être parfois difficile de comprendre jusqu’où le tribunal peut se prononcer à ce stade, et quelle est la véritable étendue du fardeau de « démonstration » qui incombe à la demande. En comparant le juge à un arbitre de baseball, tout devient on ne peut plus clair.

« [152]   Metaphorically speaking, if the Plaintiffs proposed class action were likened to a baseball game, in their Amended Statement of Claim, they throw different types of legal pitches, and they throw many pitches. On this motion, the court is the umpire calling the balls and strikes. It is a called ball when it is plain and obvious that the legal pitch is outside the legal strike zone and a called strike where the Plaintiffs have pleaded a reasonable cause of action. On the motion, the umpire-court must have a generous and wide strike zone.

[156]   The court as the umpire charged with identifying which of these many pitches is in the legal strike zone has the enormous task of carefully scrutinizing and analyzing each pitch. However, I believe that the court’s task can be simplified with some organization and remembering that under the plain and obvious test, there is a generous strike zone making it relatively easy for a Plaintiff to throw a strike.

[157]   My general approach will be to organize the discussion by beginning with the claims where it is easiest to say that the Plaintiffs have thrown a pitch within the legal strike zone and then proceeding to the progressively more difficult pitches to call. The resulting analysis will have seven stages, or innings to continue the baseball metaphor. »