The British Columbia Supreme Court has ruled employers don’t necessarily have an unfettered right to dictate the terms of a repurchase of shares held by former employees under a stock option plan.

“The message is that even when discretion is granted under the terms of a plan, that discretion is not necessarily unlimited, and it’s important to follow a proper process,” says Craig Ferris, a litigation and dispute resolution partner at Lawson Lundell LLP, who represented the former employees. “The decision also stands for the proposition that even executives who have full powers of attorney can’t sign anything they want.”

Read: Employee who didn’t read terms of stock option agreement has case overturned

Kimberly Kaplan and Kaylee Astle, previously employed by Spocket Inc., both exercised their share options on leaving the company. Both had previously agreed to the company’s right of first refusal, a document that regulated share transfers but didn’t give the........

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