Reproduced with permission of the publisher from National Banking Law Review, Volume 27, Number 6 , December 2008.
The Supreme Court of Canada has sent a message to all investment brokerage firms in Canada: proceed with caution when asking a competitor's investment advisor (IA) to cross the street. In its decision released on October 9, 2008, the SCC held a former manager at RBC Dominion Securities' (RBCDS) personally liable for almost $1.5 million in damages for coordinating RBCDS' IAs to join competitor Merrill Lynch. In what should provide targeted brokerage firms with some comfort, the decision reversed most of the Court of Appeal's findings and concluded that the branch manager breached his duty of good faith by coordinating the mass departure.
In November 2000 virtually all of the IAs at RBCDS' branch in Cranbrook crossed the street to join direct competitor Merrill Lynch. The move was coordinated by Don Delamont, RBCDS' branch manager. Consistent with a desire to quickly transfer existing clients from RBCDS to Merrill Lynch, none of the departing IAs provided advance notice of their resignations, all of which were effective on the same day. In addition, prior to the coordinated announcement of their resignations, the departing IAs copied RBCDS' client records and transferred these records to Merrill Lynch. These actions crippled RBCDS' Cranbrook branch, as only two very junior IAs remained.
As typical within the industry, none of the departing IAs had contracts requiring them to provide advance notice of termination. There were also no contractual restrictive covenants (i.e., non-competition or non-solicitation clauses). Nonetheless, the trial judge was offended by the conduct and found:
The British Columbia Court of Appeal reversed significant portions of the trial judge's findings, emphasizing the lack of written contracts with any restrictive covenants. The Court of Appeal held that:
The Supreme Court restored the majority of the trial judge's findings, including that it was an implied term of Delamont's contract that he would perform his functions in good faith. Those functions included retaining the IAs of the branch under his supervision. In organizing the mass departure from RBCDS, Delamont breached this duty. The award of almost $1.5 million against Delamont personally is a significant deterrent to managerial or senior employees coordinating the departure of IAs to a competitor.
However, the Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeal that the IAs were not bound by a general duty not to compete unfairly.
Regardless of there being no general duty to not compete unfairly, the Supreme Court decision is good news for all brokerage firms because it confirms that IAs have an implied duty: