Details of Jim Sever lawsuit 300k per year salary. Wow WESTERN MAGNESIUM Corp. is facing a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia from James Sever, a director and the company’s chief technical officer, seeking over $2-million in damages for constructive dismissal. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) He claims that the company has essentially fired him. He has not had any communications of substance in over a year, and nobody has paid his $300,000-per-year salary.
The allegations are contained in a notice of claim that Mr. Sever, 72, filed at the Vancouver courthouse on Sept. 29, 2020. Mr. Sever identifies himself as a resident of Spokane, Wash., and as a professional chemical engineer. His area of expertise is in the extraction of metals. Among other things, he claims to be developing a technology that will collect magnesium in an environmentally sound fashion.
According to the suit, Western Magnesium or its predecessors have employed Mr. Sever since 2012. His titles have varied over the years, with his most recent position being that of chief technical officer. He also sits on the company’s board of directors. The problems, as set out by Mr. Sever, go back to May, 2019. That month, Western Magnesium changed its name (it was previously known as Nevada Clean Magnesium Inc.) and redomiciled itself to Delaware from B.C. Mr. Sever claims that since the move he has had no communication of substance with the company.
He says that the president phoned him once and left a single message. He has repeatedly tried to contact the company’s management, without success, the suit claims. The company hired a new chief executive officer on March 16, 2020, but according to the suit that person has never contacted Mr. Sever. As Mr. Sever sees things, this can only mean that the company has effectively fired him (or, in legal lingo, has “constructively dismissed” him). If there were any doubt, he points to a March 16, 2020, news release in which the company said that it had hired a vice-president of operations, the duties of which matched the job he had done. The company had been advertising the position since Aug. 27, 2019.
As a result, Mr. Sever is seeking damages stemming from his dismissal. These include a $2-million termination fee that he says was built into his contract. He is also seeking $374,729 in unpaid fees and $188,792 in “tax equalization” payments. On top of that, he is seeking court costs and interest. Vancouver lawyer Chilwin Cheng filed the suit on Mr. Sever’s behalf.
Western Magnesium has not yet filed a response, although the company did recently mention Mr. Sever, without any hint of a problem. On Aug. 21, 2020, the company said that it had completed its annual general meeting, at which shareholders re-elected the company’s board. Mr. Sever is one of the company’s directors and, according to the news release, was re-elected along with the other seven members.