Northlands’ efforts to block a wrongful dismissal and defamation lawsuit by some former parking cashiers fell flat on Friday.
The Court of Appeal of Alberta upheld a lower court’s decision to reject Northlands’ application to have the $9.7-million lawsuit dismissed.
“We see no reviewable error in the chambers justice’s analysis,” the judges wrote in their decision.
Northlands terminated all its parking cashiers in October 2015 after it said a pair of audits found that money was missing from parking coffers. An internal memo was sent out alleging theft was involved.
READ MORE: Former Edmonton Northlands staff sue organization for millions
Watch below: (From April 2016) They were fired from their jobs and now, months later, several former parking attendants are suing Northlands. Vinesh Pratap has the details.
Northlands paid the required severance to the cashiers, then outsourced its parking operations to a contractor. The cashiers allege Northlands didn’t properly investigate and tarnished all their reputations.
“The appeal decision today was part of a pre-trial motion on one part of the suit,” Northlands said in response to the ruling Friday. “It remains active and proceeding to trial. Since the matter is still proceeding to trial, we are unable to comment further while the matter is still before the courts.”
None of the lawsuit’s allegations have been tested in court.
–With files from Global News’ Vinesh Pratap
View Friday’s court decision in its entirety below: