The British Columbia appeal court has rejected the appeal of three former employees, and a broker, who were ordered to pay Standard Life Assurance Co. a $446,471 judgment. In the decision released today, the court more than doubled the size of the award.

In 2000, a Standard Life internal investigation that revealed that three of its employees in its Vancouver office were the undisclosed recipients of certain brokerage commissions paid by the company over a period of many years on employee group pension plans involving a large number of its corporate clients.

The money they received was in addition to the employees’ salaries and bonuses. Standard Life terminated their employment and sued to recover the amounts paid in commissions plus interest.

The employees argued that what they did was condoned by Standard Life as a matter of policy and was consistent with the practice in the insurance industry at the time.

The case was resolved in a summary trial that saw the judge reject that defence as being unsupported by the evidence and gave judgment against the three employees and a broker. However, the judge in the summary trial concluded that, on the evidence adduced, only about half of the amount claimed was recoverable.

The three employees and the broker appealed that decision, and Standard Life cross appealed.

The appeal court found in the company’s favour, dismissing the employees’ appeal and allowing the cross appeal. It granted Standard Life judgment for $1,114,529 against the employees and broker.

The appeal court said the summary trial judge “made no error in rejecting the defence as unsupported by the evidence.”