Class Action Lawsuit Over Quebec Private School COVID-19 Interruptions

Disgruntled parents filed a request for authorization to institute a class action last week against all Montreal private schools, from Terrebonne to Candiac, Blainville and Saint-Bruno. The private school class action lawsuit targets some 100 schools attended by about 47,000 students.

Cash Refunds From Quebec Private Schools?

In Quebec, private schools that receive grants from the province are not allowed to charge parents tuition fees in excess of $3,719 at the elementary level and $4,771 at the secondary school level. Most private schools charge less than this threshold amount, and about 7,000 children receive financial assistance from their schools.

However, costs can be higher in unsubsidized schools. This is the case for the parents instituting the private school class action lawsuit. The plaintiffs have two children attending College Charles-Lemoyne in Longueuil. The elementary school tuition was $6,630 per child for the 2019-2020 school year.

The plaintiffs are bringing the private school class action lawsuit because they were not reimbursed for school fees, even though the school closed on March 13, in accordance with Quebec’s ministerial COVID-19 decree.

The private school case is but another lawsuit in a myriad of COVID-19 class actions filed in the province. For example, a recent Quebec university class action evokes similar charges to those brought in the private school lawsuit. In the university COVID-19 case, students from 15 Quebec universities instituted a class action over their schools’ refusal to refund part of their tuition for the semester disrupted by COVID-19.

Although most private schools reimbursed or credited parents for childcare, school transportation or extracurricular activities due to COVID-19 interruptions, parents were not reimbursed for teaching services. Private schools in the province justified this due to the newly implemented distance education program.

However, the parents leading the private school class action lawsuit against College Charles-Lemoyne De Longueuil and other schools feel that “the quantity and quality of distance education and teaching provided via the Internet [to their children] is not comparable to the quantity and quality of education and teaching provided in person in a classroom, where the teacher is present and there is interaction with [their children] and other students.”

COVID-19 and Force Majeure

According to the lawyers leading the private school class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs and Class Members are entitled “to a cash refund in an amount equivalent to the service paid, but not performed,” as per Quebec’s Civil Code.

Indeed, the private school class action lawsuit alleges that the provincial government’s decree requiring the suspension of educational and teaching services, constitutes an unforeseeable and irresistible event, therefore amounting to a case of force majeure.

The private school class action continues that as a result of “the force majeure event, it has become impossible for the Schools to provide the contractual obligation of full-time in-person teaching and educational services of the agreed quality and quantity, leading by operation of law to the restitution of the services,” requiring the reimbursement of Class Members.

The plaintiffs additionally argue that Montreal private schools breached their contracts with parents, therefore legally justifying a reduction of Class Members’ “correlative obligation, namely the payment made, to the extent of the benefit paid but not performed” by the schools.

According to Quebec civil law, in order to establish a force majeure event, the party invoking it must demonstrate that the event was:

• Unforeseeable at the time the obligation(s) were subscribed; and
• Irresistible, meaning that it is entirely beyond their control.

Additionally, the force majeure event must render the performance of the relevant obligation impossible, such as providing in-person educational services, and not simply more difficult or expensive. Many other class action lawsuits allege COVID-19 to be a force majeure, yet it is up to the courts to determine whether the requisite criteria are met.

Class Members include all “persons who are parties to a contract with one of the Defendant Schools and have paid tuition fees for full-time in-person teaching services at the primary or secondary level in general education for a minor for the school year beginning in 2019 and for subsequent school years, if any, until the resumption of full-time in-person teaching.”

Do you send your children to a private school in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada? Were tuition fees reimbursed due to COVID-19? Do you want to join the private school class action? Share you story with us in the comments below!

The plaintiffs and proposed Class Members are represented by Champlain avocats.

The Private School Class Action Lawsuit is Stephanie Bernier, et al. v. College Charles-Lemoyne De Longueuil Inc., et al., Case No. 505-06-000023-205, in the Superior Court of Québec, District of Longueuil, Canada.

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