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Frustrated parents who raised money for their children’s school trip would like their money back after COVID-19 cancellations, but claim their requests are falling on deaf ears.
A group of parents filed a request for authorization to institute a class action lawsuit against Quebec’s Samares School Board (Commission scolaire des Samares) for money raised for a cancelled end-of-year school trip. If this class action lawsuit is authorized, thousands of parents of the school board’s some 100 public schools will be able to recover trip funds.
“It’s stealing!” says Claudia Brousseau, plaintiff and mother of a student at École Notre-Dame in Saint-Roch-de-l’Achigan, in the Lanaudière region of Quebec.
The cancelled school trip class action lawsuit includes parents and legal guardians of students registered with the Samares School Board, for the 2019-2020 school year. Class Members must have raised money for an activity taking place “outside the premises of the educational institution (more specifically an end-of-year school trip),” to be covered by the class action lawsuit.
The plaintiffs instituting the cancelled school trip class action lawsuit are parents of students attending École Notre-Dame and École Dominique-Savio. Both schools offered an end-of-year trip to Toronto for which the plaintiffs collectively raised over $1,000.
School Class Actions: Déjà Vu Force Majeure?
Like the many COVID-19 class action lawsuits filed in the wake of the pandemic, the cancelled school trip class action lawsuit centres on the existence of a force majeure event.
Under normal circumstances, the plaintiffs would not have recourse to a class action lawsuit, because the end-of-year trip information sheet clearly states that in the case of “cancellation, the money raised through fundraising campaigns will not be returned to the student and will be deposited in the operating budget.”
However, the plaintiffs are bringing the claim forward because the school trip was cancelled, they claim, due to a force majeure event, requiring the school board to return the trip money to the parents, as per the Civil Code of Québec.
The cancelled school trip class action lawsuit claims that the school board kept the funds raised by the plaintiffs to finance educational services. This is precisely where the plaintiffs take issue with the Samares School Board: If the money raised by the parents for a school trip is used to finance educational services provided to the public, it would mean that the public schools in question are, in fact, not free. Payment for educational services provided by a public school contravenes article 3 of Quebec’s Education Act.
Public and Private Schools Face COVID-19 Class Action Lawsuits
The public school cancelled school trip class action lawsuit is reminiscent of the recent private school class action lawsuit, where force majeure was also claimed over COVID-19 cancellations.
The private school class action lawsuit was brought against almost 100 Montreal private schools for tuition fees paid for the 2019-2020 school year, that the plaintiffs argue should have been reimbursed due to COVID-19 school interruptions.
The lawyers leading the private school case referenced the school trip cancellations for which parents were not reimbursed, but took issue with the interrupted teaching services instead.
Like the cancelled school trip class action lawsuit, the private school case argued that COVID-19 constitutes a “force majeure event” requiring the reimbursement of Class Members.
Quebec civil law defines a force majeure event as:
- Unforeseeable at the time the obligation(s) were subscribed; and
- Irresistible, meaning that it is entirely beyond their control.
As numerous other COVID-19 class action lawsuits claim force majeure, time will only tell whether courts will, indeed, find that the global pandemic fulfills the requisite criteria for a force majeure event.
The cancelled school trip class action lawsuit is seeking an order requiring the school board to reimburse Class Members the amounts that they, or their minor child or children, raised for an end-of-year trip for the 2019-2020 school year.
Another school board in the Lanaudière region reportedly decided to reimburse parents for the money raised for cancelled school trips.
Did you fundraise or pay for your child’s end-of-year school trip or another event that was cancelled due to COVID-19? Were you refunded the money? Share you story with us in the comments below!
The plaintiffs and proposed Class Members are represented by Emmanuel Préville-Ratelle of Ratelle, Ratelle & Associés S.E.N.C.R.L.
The Cancelled School Trip Class Action Lawsuit is Patricia Labbé, et al. v. Centre de Services Scolaire Des Samares, Case No. 705-06-00007-204, in the Superior Court of Québec, District of Joliette, Canada.
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