Law360 Canada (January 30, 2023, 8:52 AM EST) -- Claim by Fanzone for wrongful dismissal. Fanzone was employed by the Shady Tree Neighbourhood Pub (the Pub) for a little over 23 years when the Pub was forced to close by order of the Provincial Health Officer because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pub paid all its employees, some 31 in number, their outstanding pay, including vacation pay, to that date but did not make any severance payments whether under the Employment Standards Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 113, (Employment Standards Act) or, in the case of Fanzone, pursuant to the common law. The Pub took the position that the pandemic had frustrated all the employees’ employment contracts, both at common law and as provided for in the Employment Standards Act which exempted from any severance pay obligation employment contracts that were impossible to perform due to an unforeseeable event or circumstance. In Fanzone’s case, the Pub also claimed that he fraudulently overpaid himself $9,230 for accumulated vacation to which he was not entitled. The Pub had also issued a counterclaim in Fanzone’s wrongful dismissal lawsuit seeking judgment against him in the amount of $9,230....