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A political football here in Canada has just turned into an unjust enrichment claim.

The leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, Stockwell Day, was previously a cabinet minister in the provincial government of Alberta. Lorne Goddard, a lawyer in Day's constituency, was defending an accused charged with possession of child pornography. Day wrote a letter to the local newspaper which allegedly alleged that since Goddard was defending this man, he must share his opinions. Goddard sued Day for defamation. A confidential settlement was reached last month and it was revealed that Day was covered under a provincial insurance fund which exists to protect legislators from job-related liabilities. Because of the involvement of public funds there was a public demand that the terms of the settlement be revealed, which eventually they were. It seems that the total payout from the fund was almost $800,000. Of this, $474,426 goes to Day's lawyers, $246,000 to Goddard's lawyers, $60,000 to Goddard. Goddard agreed to make the settlement public only on condition that earlier settlement offers also be made public, and they show his willingness to settle months ago for the same $60,000 that he ultimately got.

Today's papers say that a former speaker of the Alberta legislature has launched a lawsuit against the government and Day which would require Day to repay the funds on the basis that the executive usurped the function of the legislature in paying Day out of the fund. According to the print version of today's Globe and Mail, the lawsuit is based on unjust enrichment. The Globe's web site does not seem to have a version of the story; the National Post's site <http://www.nationalpost.com> says

"The suit asks the court to order Mr. Day to repay $792,064.40, the total cost of the settled suit, and declare his initial coverage under the insurance fund illegal. At a news conference yesterday, Bill Code, a prominent Calgary litigator, said the government had no right to cover the costs without asking the legislature. "We don't doubt that if they want, [the government] could put forward a bill to pay the $800,000 to Stockwell Day and take responsibility for it," Mr. Code said. "But they are relying on an insurance adjustor to interpret the law for them, rather than the legislative assembly who holds the duty to do so." The suit says the Alberta government "acted illegally in determining that Stockwell Day, as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, was acting within the scope of his duties."

The story is somewhat complicated by an earlier report of the Alberta Ethics Commissioner, online at <http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/oe01120e.html>, in which he determined in Nov 99 that Day (who was then still a provincial cabinet minister) would be in breach of provincial law if he raised funds privately for his defence. But this ruling apparently ceased to apply when Day resigned his seat in the provincial legislature to take over the leadership of the federal party which he now heads.

Lionel