Metro Taxi vs Ottawa case wraps up
Justice Smith’s decision expected this summer
“Thank you for all of this information, and your presentations, which were excellent,” Superior Court Justice Marc Smith told legal counsel for Metro Taxi and the City of Ottawa at 3:57pm on Monday, May 11th.
“I will go now to consider all that I have heard, and get back to you with my decision in due course.”
With that, the decade-long process of the Metro Taxi vs City of Ottawa court hearings concluded at the Ottawa Courthouse.
Marion Sandilands led the team for Conway Baxter Wilson LLP representing Metro Taxi et al, while Jacob Polowin argued for Gowlings, represting the City of Ottawa.
Initiated in 2016 when it became evident that the City of Ottawa was not going to enforce its own Taxi by-laws against Uber, the Metro Taxi vs Ottawa suit has become a defining moment in Canadian legal history. On May 13, 2024, Justice Smith released his decision including the statements that “Uber was a bandit taxi company” and that “Ottawa was negligent.”
Since 2024, arguments have focused on whether the $213 million dollars in damages assessed by Justice Smith should be distributed in the aggregate (a faster and simpler method) or individually (which might require individual audits of Taxi plate holder concerned).
Industry observers fear that many of the more elderly plaintiffs, some of whom were in their 70s when the case was launched, may die of old age before individual damages could be assessed or paid.
