Executive Summary: Key Legal and Evidentiary Issues

• Plaintiffs Joanie Godin and Mathieu Hébert sought a closing judgment to formally end a class action file.
   
• Approval of the underlying settlement agreement and related legal fees had already been granted in a prior 2022 judgment.
   
• Distribution of the $290,200 settlement fund among two subgroups of class members had been completed without deductions.
   
• Confirmation was provided that 124 of 191 possible claims were made and paid out, totalling $78,800.
   
• No further administrative or enforcement steps were found necessary to close the file.
   
• Sound administration of justice was cited as the basis for declaring the file closed.
   

Facts of the case

The plaintiffs, Joanie Godin and Mathieu Hébert, applied to the Superior Court for a closing judgment in a long-running class action. The proceeding began on July 20, 2018, when Godin filed an application for authorization to institute a class action against Aréna du Canadien inc. [referred to elsewhere in the judgment as L'Aréna des Canadiens inc.], later amended to add Aréna du Rocket inc. as a defendant and Mathieu Hébert as a co-plaintiff. Justice Chantal Lamarche dismissed the class action on May 6, 2019, but the Court of Appeal reversed that decision on October 7, 2020, authorizing the action on behalf of a group defined as salaried employees, excluding managers, who worked more than 40 hours in at least one week for the defendant arenas since 2017. An originating application followed on January 7, 2021, adding Société en nom collectif Evenko as a third defendant. On June 8, 2022, Justice Chantal Corriveau approved a settlement agreement and associated legal fees in a separate judgment, setting a total settlement payment of $290,200 to be divided between two subgroups based on months worked during the class period.

Policy and legislative provisions at issue

This judgment does not turn on any policy or contractual clause requiring interpretation; rather, it addresses the administrative closure of a file following a settlement already approved in an earlier proceeding. The relevant terms are those of the settlement agreement itself, as previously approved: a $400 indemnity for 94 group members and an $800 indemnity for 97 members, drawn from the $290,200 settlement fund, along with a $10,000 donation made in accordance with the agreement.

Reasoning and analysis

The court reviewed the administration of the settlement to confirm that its terms had been fully carried out. It noted that 124 of the 191 possible claims were made, each supported by a signed individual release, for a total payout of $78,800, with no residual balance remaining. No amounts were deducted from the claims paid. Separately, fees paid outside the settlement agreement generated a $44,780.50 reimbursement to the Fonds d'aide aux actions collectives. Having confirmed that no further steps were required to administer or execute the file, the court found it appropriate, in the interest of the sound administration of justice, to declare the matter closed.

Ruling and overall outcome

The court granted the application for closure sought by the plaintiffs, Joanie Godin and Mathieu Hébert, declaring itself discharged of the file as it related to the plaintiffs, the group members, and the defendants, and releasing the defendants from their remaining undertakings under the settlement. The judgment was issued without costs, and no monetary amount was ordered, granted, or awarded in this decision itself — the $290,200 settlement figure referenced in the judgment stems from the earlier 2022 approval judgment rather than from this closing order.