(February 14 – 18:00 ET) – A pair of disgruntled investors have received approval to have their separate cases against Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Canada heard at the same time.

A ruling from the Supreme Court of British Columbia clears the way for two clients of Mutual Life, Nanna Wilson and Kenneth James, to have their cases against Mutual Life and a former rep, Carey Dennis, heard at the same trial scheduled for October 1, 2001. Mutual Life is now Clarica Life Insurance Co.

The plaintiffs applied for an order that their trials be tried at the same time and place because the claims, relationships and disputes in both actions are nearly identical. Both plaintiffs claim in contract that they invested money through the defendant, Carey Dennis, with the understanding and expectation that funds would be invested with the corporate defendants, which at the time operated under the name Mutual Group.

Both plaintiffs allege that the corporate defendants are vicariously liable for the wrong doings of Dennis and are responsible for their own failure to protect the public by ensuring through the hiring process and subsequent supervision of Dennis that the public was not put at risk. They allege deceptive trade practices and that the corporate defendant breached a fiduciary duty of care, and that the corporate defendant breached a contract made through Dennis.

Mutual Life is defending both actions on the basis that Dennis was an independant contractor, not an employee or agent. It denies any knowledge that Dennis was improperly dealing with the plaintiffs’ investments and it opposed the plaintiffs’ application to have the actions heard at the same time.

“On the facts, we have two plaintiffs with virtually identical allegations against the corporate defendants, the only defendants defending this matter. The fact situations as I see them are virtually identical and separate trials before different judges for a number of reasons are ‘undesirable’ and ‘fraught with problems and economic expense’,” wrote the judge in his reasons for judgement.
-IE Staff