Law360 Canada ( December 5, 2017, 8:33 AM EST) -- Appeal by the defendants from a chambers judge's refusal to strike the plaintiffs' claims. The plaintiffs were former shareholders in a mortgage investment corporation for which the defendants provided financial management services. Any net income earned by the company was distributed to shareholders via dividends. The plaintiffs alleged the defendants mismanaged the company's mortgage portfolio. They sued, seeking an accounting of $3.7 million in management fees paid by the company to the defendants. The defendants applied to strike the claims based on the rule in Foss v. Harbottle, holding a shareholder did not have a personal cause of action for a wrong done to the corporation. The plaintiffs submitted that the legal nature of a mortgage investment corporation required a complete pass-through of any net earnings via dividend, and thus the company itself was incapable of suffering a legal wrong, whereas the plaintiffs themselves suffered a reduction in the redemption price of their shares. The chambers judge accepted the plaintiff's position in concluding that the rule in Foss v. Harbottle did not apply. The defendants appealed....