In Unanimous Decision Taylor Wins Appeal Against Mosaic Place

Appeal Allows Taylor To Proceed With Wrongful Dismissal Suit Dating Back To 2013 - Scott Clark’s Days At The Multi-Plex

In what might well be another bump surrounding the seemingly scandal plagued Mosaic Place the Saskatchewan Court of Appeals has allowed a previously dismissed wrongful dismissal case brought forward by a senior manager to proceed.

In a unanimous three to nothing September 13, 2021 decision ( Docket: CACV3632) - authored by Chief Justice CJS Richards - an appeal by Kevin Taylor the former Director of Operations for Moose Jaw Downtown and Soccer/Field House Facilities Inc [Mosaic Place] to proceed with his wrongful dismissal suit against his former employer.

Mosaic Place had previously successfully argued in front of a Court of Queen’s Bench Justice to have the wrongful dismissal case dismissed due to “lack of prosecution” by the litigant – Taylor.

Lack of prosecution means a litigant in the case failed to respond or act within a reasonable time period to allow the case to proceed and as such a justice can order the case to be dismissed. This is what the justice hearing the case did in her Chambers in December 2019.

Despite ruling against many of the points Taylor made to continue the appeal, chose to allow the appeal and the wrongful dismissal case to proceed due to how far advanced it was and it was in the interests of justice to allow it to continue.

Taylor, who was employed by the City of Moose Jaw 1991, became director of operations at Mosaic Place in June 2011 and was fired by former CEO Scott Clark in June 2013.

Taylor contends the dismissal was without cause whereas Mosaic Place says the dismissal was correct and justified thereby meaning he was not entitled pay in lieu of notice.

In his legal filing Taylor contends his case was “in the public interest” as Mosaic Place is funded by the City of Moose Jaw and taxpayers deserve to the right to know “if there were problems with its operation that warranted the termination of his employment.”

It was an argument which was dismissed by both the Justice in her initial decision to dismiss as well as the Court of Appeal.

Former CEO Clark was involved and largely blamed for a major financial scandal which rocked Mosaic Place.

Clark’s shortcomings, lack of financial acumen and understanding of his role between Council and the DFFH board at the time was highlighted in what is known as the KPMG report. The KPMG report also pointed out Clark withheld pertinent details from the board he reported to.

In the end the board was let go and three members of Council – then Mayor Deb Higgins, then Councillor Patrick Boyle and Councillor Heather Eby took over the interim operations to re-right Mosaic Place which was effectively out of funds and required an emergency financial lifeline from the City of Moose Jaw to stay afloat.

Clark found employment in Grande Prairie, Alberta shortly before the KMPG report was publicly released and declined to speak to the Moose Jaw media about it when the financial scandal became public.

The initial decision to dismiss the case was based upon the delays the Justice saw as largely being Mr Taylor’s fault.

“In the end, and weighing all of these factors, the Chambers judge concluded that it was not in the interests of justice that Mr. Taylor’s claim be allowed to proceed,” the Court of Appeal judgement read in re-stating the background of Taylor’s claim.

In his appeal Taylor pointed out Mosaic Place was responsible for delays and as such the Justice’s decision was not correct.

“He contends that, if Mosaic Place’s actions are properly taken into account, the delay in moving the litigation forward cannot be seen as having been inordinate. Mr. Taylor emphasizes, for example, that his counsel sent an email on April 2, 2017, asking Mosaic Place to provide Mr. Clark’s reply to undertakings but that the reply was not served until November 1, 2019,” the Court of Appeals decision read.

The justices saw this as a factor weighing against Taylor but they also saw Mosaic Place as simply “was also fully prepared to let the file stay in neutral and to ignore its obligation to provide replies to Mr. Clark’s undertakings and Mr. Stodalka’s request for those undertakings,” Chief Justice Richards wrote.

The argument by Mosaic Place that allowing the matter to proceed was a major burden was likewise dismissed as the four witnesses may no longer be in the City’s employment the cost to bring them to testify – including former CEO Clark – was seen as only a minor factor against the matter proceeding.

The decision admitted the case is not “entirely clear cut but in the interests of justice” that it be allowed to proceed.

In concluding Taylor’s lawsuit should continue Justice Richards awarded “costs in the usual way” to the appellant Taylor.

Mosaic Place (Spectra Event Management which inherited the legal obligations of the DFFH) has not indicated if they will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada and even then it is unknown if the Supreme Court would hear the appeal.