03.27.06
End of Our Winter of Discontent
The Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in Lysko v. Braley today.
The plaintiff Michael Lysko, who is my client, is the former commissioner of the Canadian Football League. The CFL Board of Governors dismissed him from his position in a lightning storm of publicity in March 2002.
In a widely publicized decision in November 2004, Madam Justice Low struck out most of my client’s claims and ordered that he pay the defendants $102,000.00 in legal costs.
Michael Lysko’s lawsuit is back on track today with the release of reasons in which the court allowed his appeal in part and restored his claims for negligent misrepresentation, as well as five defamation claims. The court also restored Mr. Lysko’s claim for an unpaid signing bonus.
Justice Low had dismissed the lawsuit entirely against the defendants Robert Wetenhall, Lyle Bauer, George Grant, Jeffrey Giles, John Tory, Robert Ellard, Hugh Campbell, David Macdonald and David Braley. After today’s decision, all of these defendants, except for Robert Wetenhall and Jeffrey Giles, are back in the action as defendants. The lawsuit will also continue against the defendants David Asper, Sig Gutsche and Sherwood Schwartz, as well as against those CFL clubs which did not become insolvent after March, 2002.
The court also made an important ruling about the plaintiff’s having made claims in both tort and contract. Madam Justice Low had held that these must be made in the alternative–i.e., that the plaintiff could claim one or the other, but not both. The Court of Appeal reversed that finding in favour of the plaintiff.
The court upheld, however, the dismissal of Mr. Lysko’s claims that certain unidentified CFL Governors deliberately gave false information to sportswriters Bob McCown and Marty York. The plaintiff must now consider whether he will be able to restore those claims following the trial of his defamation actions against those writers, the first of which is scheduled for April, 2007. He will seek to learn the identity of the news sources at those trials.
The release of this decision is a major step in moving the lawsuit forward. It is unknown if any of the defendants will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, but it is likely that the legal ground rules for this lawsuit were carved in stone today. Hopefully, we will see statements of defence soon.