FAQ's Cases - Stewart McKelvey

Balogun v. Deloitte & Touche, LLP Page 2[1] The plaintiff, who is now 49, worked for approximately eight months as a “taxmanager” in the Prince George office of the defendant, a national accounting firm.He says his employment was terminated and he seeks damages for wrongfuldismissal. The defendant says he voluntarily resigned. The plaintiff also seeksdamages for defamation, which the defendant denies.I. The Employment Contract[2] The plaintiff was licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in the UnitedStates, but had not obtained the equivalent Canadian designation as a CharteredAccountant. In October 2005, he was living in Toronto when he was offered andaccepted the Prince George position. He moved to Prince George to begin work inearly November.2011 BCSC 1314 (CanLII)[3] The plaintiff was introduced to the defendant through an employmentconsultant, but the tax manager position had been advertised on the defendant’snational website. The job description included playing “a key role co-ordinatingteams to provide innovative tax solutions to our clients” and “building andmaintaining client relationships”. The plaintiff testified that the term “manager” isgenerally understood in the accounting field to refer to a person leading a team,supervising all aspects of services to a client and assigning portions of the work tosubordinates.[4] At the relevant time, Ronald Fichtner was the managing partner in the PrinceGeorge office and Charles Buchan was the director of the tax department. Theyinterviewed the plaintiff in Toronto before offering him the job. Both testified thatthey did not consider the plaintiff to be fully qualified to be a tax manager, but thetitle was important to him and they hoped he would “grow into” the role. They alsosaid that the job description on the website, with its reference to teams, was ageneric one that could not be rigidly applied to a smaller office like Prince George.[5] The offer of employment was set out in a letter, signed by Mr. Buchan, onwhich the plaintiff acknowledged his acceptance. That document therefore