Plaintiffs v TD Card Holders
TD Class Action Ends In Payout To Non-Profits
An Ontario judge has approved a unique class action settlement that calls for Toronto-Dominion Bank TD-T to pay $28.4-million to two non-profit organizations to improve financial literacy and legal aid.
The Law Foundation of Ontario and Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI) are each set to receive $14.2-million. The payments are part of a $55-million settlement of a class action lawsuit which alleged that the bank improperly charged foreign-exchange fees to its Visa credit card customers.
Initially, class action lawyers Paul Pape and Harvey Strosberg had proposed that the charitable donation be distributed to the country's 16 law schools to promote legal ethics and professionalism. But in a decision released, Mr. Justice Maurice Cullity of the Superior Court of Ontario rejected the plan because of the optics of disbursing the award to law schools which have no method of supervising or controlling the expenditure of the funds.
Instead, Judge Cullity approved a plan to establish a special trust fund at the Law Foundation to pay the legal bills of low-income individuals. In his written reasons, the judge said access to justice is one of the constitutional underpinnings of our democratic constitutional system of government.
SEDI is a non-profit organization established in 1995 to provide support services and financial education to the poor and unemployed.
The unusual charitable donations agreement was struck after TD's lawyers argued that it would cost the bank $48-million to sift through millions of credit card records to determine which clients were eligible for the class action award. Another hurdle was missing data and the absence of records, which the judge said were destroyed inadvertently during the lengthy court case.
Of the total $55-million, only $10.8-million will be paid directly to TD card holders which the bank was able to identify as eligible under terms of the settlement. The remaining $11-million will be paid in fees to Mr. Pape and Mr. Strosberg and their legal teams.
For more information please contact:
Paul Pape
Pape Barristers Professional Corporation
One Queen Street East
Suite 1910
P.O. Box 69
Toronto, ON M5C 2C5, Canada
Phone: (416) 364-8765
Fax: (416) 364-8855
and/or
Harvey Strosberg
Sutts Strosberg LLP
251 Goyeau St
Windsor, ON N9A 6V4, Canada
Phone: (519) 258-9333
Fax: (519) 258-9527
