MONTRÉAL, June 21,
2024 /CNW/ - Today, Justice Silvana Conte of the
Superior Court of Quebec rendered
a landmark class action judgment ordering the Quebec government to pay over $219 million in compensation to thousands of
former taxi permit holders.
The Court recognized that the Quebec government illegally expropriated taxi
permit holders without fair compensation to make way for Uber, a
multinational corporation that refused to respect Quebec laws.
The ruling recognizes that taxi permits were often a person's
most important financial asset — one for which they had worked
their whole lives — and that the government must pay for its
decision to abolish them.
The amount awarded represents the loss in value of the permits
from September 9, 2016 — the date the
government entered into a formal pilot project with Uber, and which
the Court concluded was the first step in the expropriation process
that crystallized with the complete abolition of the permit system
in October 2019.
Between this judgment and the compensation already awarded to
taxi permit holders, the government's decision to abolish the
permit system in favour of deregulation will have cost Quebec taxpayers more than a billion
dollars.
According to Me Mathieu Charest-Beaudry, one of the lawyers for
the class, "the decision validates the sense of profound injustice
experienced by permit owners, who trusted Quebec's justice system despite everything
they experienced, and awards significant compensation as a
result."
Mr. Dama Metellus, who has courageously represented class
members since 2016, said he had always believed that such an
injustice could not go unchallenged: "Compensating permit holders
on the basis of the acquisition price rather than the market value
meant that those who bought their permits long ago received less
for exactly the same property. It didn't make any sense."
Despite the historic victory, the judgment did not award the
full amount claimed, and lawyers for the class are not ruling out
an appeal to obtain the decrease in value of the permits between
2014 and 2016.
The plaintiff and class members are represented by Trudel
Johnston & Lespérance, Me Myriam Moussignac, Me Wilerne Bernard
and Groupe Trivium.
This victory also belongs to the entirety of the taxi industry,
which has mobilized to defend the rights of class members since
Uber's arrival in Quebec.
A copy of the judgment is available on the Trudel Johnston &
Lespérance website:
https://tjl.quebec/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/2024-06-21-Jugement-sur-le-proces-au-merite-Metellus-avec-compression_1.pdf
SOURCE Trudel Johnston & Lespérance