WIC Premium Television Ltd. v. General Instrument Corp. et al., 2000 ABCA 233

• Judge: McFadyen, O'Leary and Russell, JJ.A.
• Court: Court of Appeal (Alberta)
• Case Date: August 22, 2000
• Citations: 2000 ABCA 233;(2000), 266 A.R. 142 (CA)

WIC Premium TV v. Gen. Instrument (2000), 266 A.R. 142 (CA);

    228 W.A.C. 142

MLB headnote and full text

Temp. Cite: [2000] A.R. TBEd. SE.004

United States Satellite Broadcasting Company, Inc. (defendant/appellant) v. Wic Premium Television Ltd. (plaintiff/respondent) and [names of defendants not parties to the appeal omitted]

(9903-0273AC)

Wic Premium Television Ltd. (plaintiff/respondent) v. Echostar Communications Corporation, Dish Ltd. and Echosphere Corporation (defendants/appellants) and [names of defen­dants not parties to the appeal omitted] (9903-0277AC)

Wic Premium Television Ltd. (plaintiff/respondent) v. Warren Supply Company, Programmers Clearing House, Inc., and Warren Supply Company Carrying on Business as "Builders Express" (defendants/appellants) and [names of defen­dants not parties to the appeal omitted]

(9903-0276AC)

Wic Premium Television Ltd. (plaintiff/appellant) v. Ralph Warren, Ronald Warren, Ralph Warren and Ronald Warren Carrying on Business as "Programmers Clearing House" and as "Warren Activations" and as "Warren Radio & Television" and as "Entertainment Direct" (defendants/respondents) and [names of defen­dants not parties to the appeal omitted]

(9903-0298AC; 2000 ABCA 233)

Indexed As: WIC Premium Television Ltd. v. General Instrument Corp. et al.

Alberta Court of Appeal

McFadyen, O'Leary and Russell, JJ.A.

August 22, 2000.

Summary:

The plaintiff broadcast encrypted sub­scrip­tion television programming signals in West­ern Canada and authorized the decoding of those signals by subscribers for a fee. The plaintiff sued a number of defendants for damages. Certain defendants (American) applied to set aside an ex parte order for service ex juris on them and to strike them from the pro­ceedings.

The Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, in a decision reported 243 A.R. 329, dis­missed the application (except for two indi­vidual defendants). The American defen­dants appealed. The plaintiff appealed the order striking the action against the two defen­dants.

The Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals.

Editor's Note: for related cases see 243 A.R. 324, 253 A.R. 153 and 253 A.R. 161.

Company Law - Topic 4183

Directors - Liability of directors - For torts - The plaintiff sued several defend­ants in tort for damages, including Ralph and Ronald Warren personally as the direc­ting minds of their companies - The chambers judge set aside service ex juris upon the Warrens and struck their names from the pleadings - Based on the plead­ings, any activities that the Warrens per­sonally engaged in were per­formed in their capac­ities as officers and directors of their com­panies - There was no pleading that took them out of the role of directing minds - The Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed the plaintiff's appeal - See paragraphs 20 to 24.

Company Law - Topic 4566

Officers and agents - Liability - General - For tortious acts - [See Company Law - Topic 4183 ].

Conflict of Laws - Topic 1664

Actions - General - Forum conveniens - Considerations - [See Conflict of Laws - Topic 7601 ].

Conflict of Laws - Topic 7601

Torts - Jurisdiction - Forum conveniens - The plaintiff sued several defend­ants in tort, includ­ing con­spiracy, for damages alleging, inter alia, that the de­fend­ants were providing compet­ing satellite television program­ming signals illegally to Cana­dian cus­tomers through decoders activated by the defend­ants - Certain Ame­rican defend­ants applied to set aside an ex parte order for service ex juris on them and to strike them from the pro­ceed­ings - They argued that they had no manufactur­ing plant, offices, sales force, nor did they advertise in the plain­tiff's territory (West­ern Canada) - The chambers judge dis­missed the appli­cation (except for two individ­ual defend­ants), affirming that there should be no mechan­ical counting of con­crete con­nections between a proposed defendant and the geographic territory in question - The defend­ants had a real and sub­stantial con­nection with the juris­diction of the plain­tiff's territory - The Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed the defendants' appeal - See para­graphs 16 to 19.

Cases Noticed:

Talbot v. Pan Ocean Oil Corp. and Pan Ocean Oil Ltd. (1977), 5 A.R. 361; 3 Alta. L.R.(2d) 354 (C.A.), refd to. [para. 6].

Antares Shipping Corp. v. Ship Capricorn et al., [1977] 2 S.C.R. 422; 7 N.R. 518, refd to. [para. 6].

Cunningham v. Hamilton - see Pasukonis Estate v. Hamilton et al.

Pasukonis Estate v. Hamilton et al. (1995), 169 A.R. 132; 97 W.A.C. 132; 29 Alta. L.R.(3d) 380 (C.A.), refd to. [para. 7].

Nova, An Alberta Corp. v. Grove Estate and Guelph Engineering Co. et al., [1983] 1 W.W.R. 1; 39 A.R. 409; 22 Alta. L.R.(2d) 262 (C.A.), refd to. [para. 7].

Esso Resources Canada Ltd. v. Stearns Catalytic Ltd., [1990] A.J. No. 464 (C.A.), refd to. [para. 8].

Vitkovice Horni A. Hutni Tezirstvo v. Korner, [1951] A.C. 869; [1951] 2 All E.R. 334 (H.L.), refd to. [para. 9].

Counsel:

J.D. Vallis and S.C. Lee, for United States Satellite Broadcasting Co. Inc.;

K. William McKenzie and G. Cheung, for WIC Premium Television Ltd.;

J.L. McDougall, Q.C., and Craig R. Vander Zee, for Warren Supply Co., Programmers Clearing House, Inc., Ralph Warren, Ronald Warren, Ralph Warren and Ronald Warren c.o.b. as "Programmeres Clearing House" and as "Warren Activations" and as "Warren Radio & Television" and as "Entertain­ment Direct", Warren Supply Company c.o.b. as "Builders Express", Echostar Communications Corp., Disk Ltd. and Echosphere Corp.

This appeal was heard on February 22 and 23, 2000, before McFadyen, O'Leary and Russell, JJ.A., of the Alberta Court of Appeal, who filed the following memoran­dum of judgment on August 22, 2000.