This is copy of a post from Stockhouse re Inco
How did everyone miss this article from the Toronto Star.
They also still have to deal with a multi million dollar
countersuit from the Voisey Bay dissident shareholders.
Lawsuit against Inco to proceed
Nov. 19, 2005. 01:00 AM
JENNIFER GRAHAM AND ANDREW DAVIDSON
CANADIAN PRESS
Ontario's Court of Appeal has given the go-ahead to a class-action lawsuit alleging an Inco refinery contaminated homes in the Niagara Region community of Port Colborne.
The decision could have repercussions across Canada.
The court certified the class-action suit yesterday, setting aside orders handed down by the Ontario Divisional Court last year. The $750 million suit alleges the properties of thousands of families in Port Colborne were contaminated by nickel over a period of about 80 years and therefore devalued.
The court's ruling is "precedent-setting," said Eric Gillespie, lawyer for lead plaintiff Wilfred Pearson, who launched the suit in March 2001.
"It's very positive for Port Colborne," Gillespie said. "It's even more positive in many respects for other communities that may have similar environmental issues."
Unlike other cases involving single environmental incidents — such as the tainted-water tragedy in Walkerton, Ont., in 2001 — there has never been a class-action certified for long-term historic environmental harm in Canada, excluding Quebec, which operates under a different legal code, Gillespie said.
"Clearly, that has policy implications for every jurisdiction in Canada, well beyond whatever the situation may turn out to be in Port Colborne."
The ruling allows the large number of plaintiffs — about 8,000 — to proceed as a group in their action against Inco.
Inco spokesman Bruce Drysdale said the company will appeal the decision and ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear the case. |
