Legal Issues and Potential Torts in the Case of Medicine Hat Good Person Society vs Helping Medicine

Background of the Case

Read the following fact scenario and answer the question that follows.

The Medicine Hat Good Person Society (“MHGPS”) is a non-profit organization located in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It is a community support services organization that provides support to individuals in Medicine Hat, Alberta. The MHGPS is funded primarily through grants from the provincial government and private donations. The non-profit world is highly competitive with many non-profit organizations competing for the same government grants. MHGPS’s primary competitor is the Helping Medicine Hat Society (“HMHS”). Both organizations operate through a Board of Directors (“BOD”) consisting of 7 members each. In reality, the BODs do very little work. MHGPS is really being operated by its Executive Director, Christine – who reports to the MHGPS BOD. HMHS is being operated by its Executive Director, Diane – who reports to the HMHS BOD. Both HMHS and MHGPS have seen a drastic cut in their sources of funding. In fact, MHGPS just had a BOD meeting where it was discussed that if their situation does not improve the organization may have to be dissolved and stop operating. The HMHS is doing a lot better than MHGPS as their ED – Diane (who saw the funding crunch coming) began a substantial fundraising campaign and built strong community connections with wealthy citizens of Medicine Hat. The loss of government funding has more than been offset by the new source of donations. Mark and John are two of the seven directors of the BOD of MHGPS; they are childhood friends with Barry who is married to Diane. A few weeks ago, on the golf course with Barry, they were discussing the funding problems that MHGPS were having and inquired as to if Diane was happy working at HMHS. Barry relayed that Diane is quite happy and, suspecting why they were asking, he relayed that it would take a lot of money to get her to leave her job at HMHS. Mark and John, nevertheless, convinced Barry to set up a meeting with them and Diane so they could discuss options for her. At that meeting, Diane insisted that she was not interested in changing her employment, she made it clear that she had a three-year employment contract with HMHS but was also flattered by the suggestion.

Mark and John were dedicated and loyal directors of the MHGPS and did not want to see it dissolved so they engaged in a series of questionable decisions leading to several torts or wrongdoings occurring in a very short period of time.

Overview of the Legal Issues

Firstly, they convinced the BOD of MHGPS to dismiss Christine from her employment with MHGPS. At the time of her dismissal, she was told that due to the funding cuts, the organization could no longer afford to pay her expensive salary.

Secondly, Mark and John informed the other BOD of MHGPS of the three-year employment contract that Diana had with HMHS and explained that they believed Diane could be lured away if they offered her a 50% increase in her current salary. The other BOD of MHGPS authorized Mark and John to approach Diane and make her a generous employment offer. One of the board members said, “make her an offer that she could not refuse.” The BOD had thought that the offer would just be monetary in nature, Mark and John had other plans. Mark and John knew that money would not be enough to lure Diane away from HMHS, so they concocted a plan to force her to leave HMHS and accept the offer of employment with MHGPS. In particular, they met with Diane and Barry and relayed the following information:

1) Last spring, Mark, John, and Barry went on a golfing trip to Cabo San Lucas. One night they were out at a local bar and drank far too much alcohol. Barry insisted on driving the rental car back to the golf resort – despite being intoxicated and knowing that he should not drive. On the drive back to the resort Barry got into a car accident and drove the rental car into a tree causing some minor damage to the car.

2) When Barry, Mark and John got out of the car they noticed that it was not just a tree that Barry hit but also a pedestrian, who appeared to be alive but barely breathing. They were all very drunk, but it was Barry who took out a tire iron from the trunk and “finished the job”. Barry then put the body into the rental car, doused the car with gasoline and lit the car on fire.

3) The next morning, they reported the car as being stolen from the bar and gave a statement to the police that they “all walked backed to the resort from the bar without incident”.

4) The next day, a newspaper report came out indicating that the police believed that the vehicle had been stolen by a member of a drug cartel and used to kill a member of a rival drug cartel.

5) Barry, Mark and John made a blood oath never to speak of the incident again and returned to Canada the next day with no legal repercussions.

Mark and John explained to Barry and Diane that they did not just take a blood oath; but also took a video and had some photographs of Barry committing the wrongful acts. In order to force Diane to accept the offer of employment with MHGPS, they threatened to release this evidence to the public and, in particular, to the rival drug cartel so they could know who actually killed their colleague.

Diane acquiesced to their threat, accepted their offer of employment, and quit her job at the HMHS breaching her employment contract. Diane was a great success at MHGPS, her contacts with the affluent members of Medicine Hat society allowed her to dramatically increase the private donations to MHGPS. In addition, because she knew HMHS’s process and procedures for applying for government grants she was able to assist MHGPS to obtain a majority of the government grants available. HMHS did not fair well in Diane’s absence. Within weeks of her leaving their financial status has fallen into turmoil and they are now on the verge of dissolution.

Christine has also not done well. It has been over a year since she lost her job with MHGPS and she still has not been able to find suitable new employment. She never got along with Mark and John and feels like they had a personal vendetta against her. She believes that had Mark and John not engaged in their course of action she would still be employed with MHGPS.

Discuss all of the legal issues that these facts give rise to. Specifically, you should address the various torts and potential torts that may have occurred in the above scenario.