Ottawa, Metro Taxi back in court April 4th addressing damages
Justice Marc Smith decision May 13, 2024 Metro Taxi vs Ottawa
The Metro Taxi vs City of Ottawa trial will be continued on April 4th, 2025, to address the issue of damages.
The parties will be back in court to argue the issue of whether damages should be assessed in the aggregate. That was the final common issue that was deferred at trial. There will not be any new evidence; rather, it will be legal argument based on the written submissions.
Case updates can be found on the class action website.
On May 13th, 2024, Justice Marc Smith issued his decision that found “Uber was a bandit Taxi company” and “The City of Ottawa was negligent.”
In 2016, the representative plaintiffs (Metro Taxi Ltd., Marc Andre Way and Iskhak Mail) commenced a class action seeking compensation for the losses suffered by taxi plate owners and taxicab brokers as a result of the City of Ottawa’s conduct following the entry of Uber in 2014. The class action alleged that the City of Ottawa (the “City”) was negligent in enforcing By-law 2012-258 (the “Taxi-By-law”), discriminated on the basis of race and ethnic origin contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Ontario Human Rights Code, and charged illegal taxes.
The class action seeks $215 million in damages.
On June 28, 2024, the parties attended a trial management conference for the purpose of setting a timetable for next steps in the proceeding. Following this conference, the continuation of the trial was scheduled for the week of February 10, 2025, before Justice Marc Smith. The continuation of the trial will address the remaining common issue, of whether damages should be assessed in the aggregate. Oral arguments on the aggregate damages issue are currently scheduled for April 4, 2025.
The lawyers who are representing the plaintiff classes are Thomas G. Conway, Marion Sandilands, Abdalla Barqawi, and Joseph Rucci.
