Justice Côté writing for the Court of Appeal dismissed Bell Mobility’s appeal of the trial judge’s ruling. The Court upheld the trial judge’s ruling that the company is liable to class members in the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut who paid 911 fees without receiving any 911 operator service.
Justice Côté did not accept Bell Mobility’s argument that it charged a fee for connecting a 911 call saying “In my respectful view, connecting someone to nothing is still nothing.” Justice Côté did not accept Bell Mobility’s argument that 911 calls in the Territories are sometimes routed to a recording directing the caller dial a local emergency number (without providing those numbers). Justice Côté said “To seek to charge for that by calling it 911 service seems to me very unreasonable. It is like delivering to a starving person a photograph of a turkey dinner, and then charging him or her for a turkey dinner (or delivery of one).”
Bell Mobility’s appeal of the cost awarded to the Plaintiffs was also dismissed.
The issue of damages remains to be tried.
Citation: Bell Mobility Inc v Anderson, 2015 NWTCA 3 is now available:
January 2015