Environmental Class Actions for Historical Contamination: Smith v. Inco Limited 2013

Abstract

Smith v. Inco Ltd is a noteworthy environmental law case for several reasons, not the least of which it is that it is the first environmental class action lawsuit to proceed through a trial and appeal in a common law province in Canada. The case, which took more than a decade to be decided, alleged that continuous tortious behaviour on the part of mining giant Inco Ltd commencing almost a century earlier had adversely affected a large class of landowners' property values. The case evolved through several styles of cause and claims that led to many trips to the courthouse on a wide assortment of intractably contested legal issues. Although the various procedural issues contribute in their own ways to the development of the law, particularly in respect of class action proceedings, this Comment is focused on analysis of the substantive issues in the case.