The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) have pushed back a court date regarding the health plan lawsuit the GSA filed against CUSA in 2012.
The GSA filed the lawsuit against CUSA alleging CUSA breached their joint health plan by signing with Student Care, and a portion of the former health plan’s surplus belongs to the GSA.
The court date was scheduled for Feb. 8 but was pushed back to April 14 due to a scheduling error by CUSA’s lawyer.
CUSA president Fahd Alhattab said he thinks it’s possible for the lawsuit to be settled at the next court date. GSA president Michael Bueckert declined to comment on details surrounding the date.
Alhattab said the GSA has sued them for money they believe CUSA owes them, but they haven’t communicated enough to move the process forward towards a resolution. Thus, the $850,000 health plan reserve funds involved in the lawsuit has been inaccessible and held in court over the past three years.
“In them suing us, they have claimed damages . . . When you claim damages, you have to claim the particulars of the damages. No particulars have been claimed in three years. And no communication regarding this has been offered to us from their lawyers,” he said.
“They said ‘We’re suing you’ and they’ve done nothing about it and that money has been held. So what we’re asking the judge is see that they’ve done nothing about it, they’ve been inactive, we’ve consistently asked for communication,” Alhattab added. “They’ve done nothing about it, and it’s caused now us damages for not having the money, so we are asking a release of the money.”
Bueckert refuted Alhattab’s comments in an email.
“Legal counsel for both parties have communicated many times on numerous issues. I disagree with [Alhattab’s] characterization of these communications,” he said.
Bueckert said CUSA illegally broke their joint health plan by redefining the word “referendum” to mean a vote between CUSA executives.
“CUSA then claimed 100 per cent of the health plan’s reserve funds, which were paid into by both undergraduate and graduate students,” Bueckert said.
Alhattab said the GSA’s former health plan agreement was with CUSA—not the health plan insurer—because the health plan’s account belonged to CUSA. He also said CUSA approached the GSA to break the former health plan agreement in order to sign with a new insurer for the new health plan, and invited the GSA to join the new plan but they were turned down.
“The whole thing could have been avoided had the GSA simply switched health care providers with us,” Alhattab said.
“The GSA was not provided with any information about the new for-profit plan in advance,” Bueckert said. He added that signing onto the plan without information would have been “inappropriate” and “irresponsible.”
Alhattab said health plan use has increased since the switch to the new health plan, therefore the cost has gone up as well. He said the money that is being held in court is needed to subsidize the current health plan’s rates.
“Our claim is there’s now been damages to our student association and our students by not having access to any of that money,” he said.
