Are third parties bound to the findings of the common issues trial?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Lam v. University of British Columbia, 2014 BCSC 673 (CanLII):
This question has been considered in a number of class proceedings. The decisions turn on the extent to which the third party claims are interconnected with the issues between the plaintiffs and defendants. In Campbell v. Flexwatt Corp., [1996] B.C.J. No. 2052 (S.C.), the court determined that the third parties should be bound by the findings of fact which would be made in the common issues trial. This was not surprising given that the third parties were in a similar position in relation to the class members as the primary defendants. In other words, the ruling was necessary to bind both the plaintiffs and third parties to a decision that would be made in the common issues trial. That situation is very different from the present case where the class members have no claims against or interaction with the third parties.
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