Wayne Beatty v. Canadian Mill, 2003 BCSC 1053 (CanLII)
FACTS
Mr. Wayne Beatty, the plaintiff brought a claim against his former employer Canadian Mill Services Association (CMSA), the defendant is suing for wrongful dismissal and contending he is eligible for increased damages due to the way the dismissal was handled. The damages include an additional 13 months’ notice and for the loss of a number of fringe benefits.
CMSA is a non-profit forest industry association providing inspection and education services in relation to lumber quality standards in BC’s forest products companies. Mr. Beatty was on the board of directors and held the position of Executive Director responsible for overseeing the management of the daily activities of CMSA which consisted of a small staff of management and administrative staff. As well, he was responsible for maintaining the client relationships with the companies who used CMSA’s services and was responsible for overseeing the formulization of the annual budget and its presentation to the board of directors. It should be noted that before the CMSA’s creation, there was a similar organization called the Council of Forest Industries (COFI) which provided the same type of services that the CMSA grew out of this organization. Mr. Beatty was initially employed by COFI before CMSA and his term of employment with CMSA included his term with COFI – 11 ½ years total.
There is a dispute between the plaintiff and the defendant as to the plaintiff’s actual role in the start-up of CMSA. Mr. Beatty states that he ‘founded’ CMSA while the CMSA states that he is exaggerating his role. The Courts perceived that Mr. Beatty played an important role in the start-up but did not ‘create’ CMSA.
The plaintiff had submitted a proposal to the Canadian Forest Products to provide them services. With this in mind, he thought that a staff reorganization should take place to cover these services. This plan which he