Awaiting Metro Taxi vs Ottawa decision

Plaintiffs remain optimistic

Taxi plate holders and industry observers waiting for the decision by Justice Marc Smith in the Metro Taxi vs. City of Ottawa case will need to wait a little longer.

Those involved with the landmark case, in which Smith found that “Uber was a bandid Taxi company” and “Ottawa was negligent,” had been hopeful that his decision would be released when summer ended after Labour Day weekend. However, the decision has not yet been released as of October 2nd.

On Monday, May 11, Justice Smith said “Thank you for all of this information, and your presentations, which were excellent. I will go now to consider all that I have heard, and get back to you with my decision in due course.”

“I am optimistic,” says plaintiff Marc Andre Way of Coventry Connections, which owns Metro Taxi. “Hopefully we will receive notice of Justice Smith’s decision in the weeks ahead, and I remain optimistic that the news will be good.”

While Way and the other plaintiffs including a significant group of Ottawa Taxi plate owners were hugely encouraged by Smith’s original decision, the outstanding issue is whether the $213 milllion in damages Smith found are to be assessed in the aggregate, or individually. That is the final issue on which plaintiffs await decision and it could mean either that some form of payment could be calculated relatively quickly (aggregate assessment) or slowly over another many years (if assessed individually).

Also before any payment for damages is released, the City of Ottawa may opt to appeal the case. In that event, Justice Smith’s entire decision would be up for re-adjudication. Industry observers fear that many of the more elderly plaintiffs, some of whom were in their 70s when the case was launched in 2016, may die of old age before individual damages could be assessed or paid.