Canada’s Irving Oil In Legal Battle With Former Executive Over Contract Violation
Canada’s oil major Irving Oil and one of its former executive are locked in a legal battle and are trading allegations. In its filings, filed on Tuesday in response to former executive Mike Ashar's charge that he was underpaid and lost millions of dollars, the company accused him of having caused the decline of the family-owned company's worth during his five-year term.
The legal battle also gave a look into the internal affairs of the family run company, which is Canada's largest oil refinery and located in New Brunswick. It was in news for its big project of a storage terminal that will serve Canada’s ambitious oil pipeline project "TransCanada's Energy East," reports Reuters.
Ex VP’s Law Suit
The litigant Ashar has the distinction of being the first non-member of the billionaire family hired for running Irving Oil. He joined the company in 2008 and left it in 2013. In his law suit filed in March 2015, Ashar alleged a "poisoned work environment" forced his exit and accused the company of having spied on his emails after his departure and charged them with withholding his bonus of about $50 million.
The former executive said the decision to block the bonus was based on a flawed analysis of the company's worth during his tenure and ignored his contributions in the Energy East project and oil deliveries to the refinery by rail.
Compensation Sought
Ashar sought damages of $50 million for the unilateral breaching of the contract and said if the equity value of Irving Oil on December 31, 2013 was calculated correctly, his Value Appreciation Rights or incentive pay would have been $50 million. In the statement to the Court of Queen's Bench in Saint John, Ashar demanded an additional $200,000 in punitive damages and a further $50,000 for invading his privacy, reported CBC News.
Irving’s Response
Irving Oil asked the Saint John Court of Queen's Bench to dismiss Ashar's claim. Ashar's tenure ... proved to be unsuccessful. "The equity value of Irving Company and Irving Limited decreased under Ashar's leadership," the filing said. The rejoinder said it was "increasingly dissatisfied" with Ashar and the VP himself expressed the desire to quit because his family was against his stay in the industrial city of Saint Jon where Irving is headquartered.
Irving said the payment of CA$20 million upon his departure in 2013 was full and final and represented "the entirety of Irving Limited's remaining obligations." It also defended the monitoring of the ex VP’s email and said the company is fully entitled to do it. Ashar did not react to Irving’s latest comments. Ashar's successor Paul Browning also left the company in August 2014, after a two year stint. Now the company has left the position unfilled.
(For feedback/comments, contact the writer at k.kumar@ibtimes.com.au)
