Sankreacha V. Cameron J. And Beach Sales Ltd.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently released its trial decision for Sankreacha1 where Martin Smith, Managing Partner of the Ottawa office of McCague Borlack LLP, with the assistance of Desneiges Mitchell, associate, and Marla Rosenblatt-Worth, associate, successfully defended against a litany of tort claims brought by the plaintiff, Bharath Sankreacha, after the conclusion of a four week trial before Justice Charney.

Martin and his team defended the plaintiff's former employer and corporate owner of the Markham Canadian Tire franchise, Cameron J. and D. Beach Sales Ltd., as well as the plaintiff's former manager, Rod Brennan. Co-defendants' counsel appeared for the security contractor retained by the franchise, John Cowan, and his company JMC Legal Services Inc.

The plaintiff was a Service Advisor at the Canadian Tire automotive department in Markham, Ontario. He was dismissed from his employment in June 2010, after being accused of installing KGB spyware on his employer's computer and being charged by the police with unauthorized possession of credit card data. The charges were withdrawn by the Crown on August 10, 2011.

As the result of his dismissal, the plaintiff brought claims for wrongful dismissal, inducing breach of contract, injurious falsehood, intentional infliction of mental distress, defamation, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and civil conspiracy. A total of eight tort claims!

The plaintiff's position was that not only was he was not responsible for the installation of the KGB spyware on his manager's computer, but he was also set up. His conspiracy theory was that the KGB spyware was actually installed by Mr. Brennan and Mr. Cowan, acting in concert, in order to frame the plaintiff.

1. Wrongful Dismissal

   Using his conspiracy theory as the backdrop, the plaintiff argued two hypotheses as to why he was wrongfully terminated. First, to fabricate a cause to dismiss the plaintiff for refusing to upsell and second, to act as a decoy from the subsequent pin pad fraud which befell the store, days after his dismissal.

   Justice Charney found the evidence did not support the allegations that Mr. Brennan had any concern, let alone knowledge, of the plaintiff's refusal to upsell. With respect to the pin pad fraud cover-up theory, Justice Charney dismissed it on the basis that it was not pleaded in the plaintiff's statement of claim, nor was there any supporting evidence, even if it had been pleaded properly.

   On a...