TORONTO – Former Vision TV CEO Bill Roberts may soon receive a judge’s decision in his ongoing lawsuit against ZoomerMedia Ltd.
Roberts is suing Zoomer for close to $1 million for severance and damages, resulting from his employment termination in 2012, which came three years after the media company owned by Moses Znaimer made a deal to buy the religious programming channel in June 2009.
After purchasing Vision TV (the deal was formally completed in June 2010) and appointing Roberts as president of its television division, Zoomer and the long-time Vision TV boss entered into negotiations to extend Roberts’s employment contract beyond its October 31, 2011 expiry date, according to Roberts’ court factum filed February 8th with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. With negotiations still in progress, Zoomer issued Roberts with a notice of termination in March 2012, providing eight months of working notice and two months of severance pay, says the factum. Roberts’s employment at Zoomer officially ended on October 31, 2012.
However, according to the terms of Roberts’s employment contract with Vision TV’s previous owner, S-Vox Trust, Roberts’s court statements say he is entitled to receive a lump sum severance payment of two years of salary and a six-month paid sabbatical upon expiry of his contract. Roberts had been employed as president and CEO of S-Vox Trust since 2000 and argues that Zoomer agreed to continue the existing terms of his employment contract as part of its original purchase offer for Vision TV in June 2009 and also upon completion of the deal in June 2010.
Despite several attempts at negotiating a new employment contract for Roberts, the two parties never formally agreed to terms prior to the contract’s expiry in October 2011 say the court documents. In particular, Zoomer did not want a six-month sabbatical entitlement included in a new contract nor did it want to pay severance in a lump sum payment, says the Roberts filing.
In the fall of 2011, Roberts’ filing attempted to negotiate a one-year extension to his employment contract and Zoomer agreed to increase his salary, effective November 1, 2011. When Zoomer issued the notice of termination to Roberts in March 2012, a new employment contract had still not been finalized, according to the court filing As noted previously, Roberts was formally employed until the end of October 2012.
Roberts’s position is the terms of his employment contract that expired on October 31, 2011 still applied upon his termination, and therefore he was entitled to two years’ worth of severance and a six-month paid sabbatical, totalling $640,000. In addition, Roberts is suing Zoomer for an additional $300,000 for mental distress and punitive damages, and also bad faith and aggravated damages. With the addition of pre-judgment interest, Roberts’s suit totals a little more than $987,000. He has also requested Zoomer pay for the costs of the lawsuit.
On February 8, Roberts through his counsel submitted a motion to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice requesting that a summary judgment be issued in the case. In response, Zoomer submitted a factum on February 12, requesting the motion for summary judgment be dismissed. Zoomer is arguing that the case has a number of contested facts, making a trial necessary.
Roberts told Cartt.ca via email that his counsel expects to receive a written judgment on the case from Superior Court judge Honourable Paul Perell within the next few weeks.
Zoomer declined to comment when contacted by Cartt.ca.
Full disclosure: Bill Roberts has at times worked for Cartt.ca as an editorial contributor.
