Ribeiro v CIBC

 Tony Ribeiro worked for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as a loans officer. He was fired from the Bank, based on allegations that he was involved in criminal activity, having created false loans for fictitious persons and pocketing the proceeds.

 Criminal charges were laid against him. These charges were withdrawn at the preliminary inquiry by the Crown Attorney.

 At the civil trial brought by Tony against the Bank, the trial judge, Mr. Justice Carruthers found that there was ‘an unholy alliance” between the Bank’s internal security personnel, a retired police officer, and the police officer to whom the Bank had referred this case.

 The trial judge found in Tony’s favour. An award was made of damages for emotional suffering of $20,000 and punitive damages of $10,000.

The Court of Appeal increased the punitive award to $50,000 which was then considered the high end for punitive damages.

 Given the modern decision of Whiten v Pilot, Tony would likely be awarded much more in punitive damages today. The concept of punitive damages is designed as a fine to deter such conduct in the future. One would expect that the sum of $50,000 would not be high enough to show a deterrent to a Schedule A Bank, even in 1989 when this case was decided.