--- title: "Canada's top court reopens SS&C's US$890 million damages claim against BNY Mellon" description: "Canada's Supreme Court has affirmed BNY Mellon destroyed evidence in a data-licensing fight with SS&C, scrapped a US$5.7 million damages award, and sent the number back for reassessment with the bank's missing records now counting against it. SS&C claimed US$889.8 million, and where the reassessment lands is the only number left to fight over." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Policy" published: 2026-10-10T19:04:38.852Z modified: 2026-10-10T19:04:38.852Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/canada-s-top-court-reopens-ss-c-s-us-890-million-damages-claim-against-bny-mellon language: en keywords: "Litigation, Courts, Canada, Data Licensing, Custody Banking" --- # Canada's top court reopens SS&C's US$890 million damages claim against BNY Mellon > Canada's Supreme Court has affirmed BNY Mellon destroyed evidence in a data-licensing fight with SS&C, scrapped a US$5.7 million damages award, and sent the number back for reassessment with the bank's missing records now counting against it. SS&C claimed US$889.8 million, and where the reassessment lands is the only number left to fight over. For 17 years, as many as 65 unauthorized entities had access to a securities-pricing feed licensed from [SS&C Technologies Canada](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/ss-c-technologies), and the records of what they took were never preserved [1]. In 2016 SS&C asked [BNY Mellon](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/bny-mellon) to preserve its redistribution and earnings records; the bank refused, on the stated ground that it rejected the allegations [2]. On July 31, 2026, the Supreme Court of Canada decided what that refusal should cost [1][4]. [In SS&C Technologies Canada Corp. v. Bank of New York Mellon Corp., 2026 SCC 29](https://news.wirqo.com/spoliation-and-contract-damages-in-ss-c-v-bny-mellon-2026-scc-29/), it affirmed that BNY had committed spoliation, the intentional destruction or concealment of evidence meant to subvert the truth-finding process, and ruled that the resulting uncertainty now counts against the bank [1][2]. ## SS&C claimed US$889.8 million and was awarded under 1 percent of it SS&C, the world's largest hedge fund and private equity administrator [3], licensed the feed to BNY, the world's largest custodial bank [2], under 1999 agreements that barred redistribution to third parties, including BNY's own affiliates [1]. A Canadian custody joint venture dropped its license in 2011; the data kept flowing anyway, and SS&C found out in 2016 [1]. At trial SS&C claimed US$889,752,087 and was awarded US$5,696,850 [2]. The Supreme Court has scrapped that award, in unanimous joint reasons by Justices Côté and Moreau, [its first substantive ruling on spoliation since St. Louis v. The Queen in 1896](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/when-evidence-disappears-the-supreme-4925285/) [4]. ## The trial judge assumed the missing data was shared once BNY's defense, that its affiliates fell inside the license, failed at every level of court; what reached the Supreme Court was the price [2]. The trial judge found BNY could account for only 44.6 percent of the data, then [priced the unaccounted 55.4 percent with a "rateable approach"](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-supreme-court-of-canada-affirms-6466165/) that assumed it was shared once [2][4]. The Supreme Court called those inferences weak and incomplete, and its worked example runs the other way: the trial judge could have inferred that each of the 65 entities used all the data it could access [2]. Destroy the logs, and the court may price the data as if everyone who could take it took everything. ## Licensors get a template, licensees the inference The precedent reaches past these two. A data licensor that assumed unauthorized redistribution was unpriceable now has a Canadian template, and a licensee that ignores a litigation hold now knows what its missing records will be taken to mean [1][2]. ## The claim is an option, not a number What the reassessment produces is open. The scope of the adverse inferences is discretionary and must be proportionate, there is no automatic maximum penalty, BNY can bring evidence to narrow them, and the new hearing runs on the existing record [4][2]. The US$889.8 million is SS&C's allegation, not a finding. *Chart: **The scrapped award was under 1 percent of the claim, and the claim is half a quarter of BNY profit** Column chart comparing the US$5.696 million trial award, SS&C's US$889.8 million claim and BNY Mellon's US$1.761 billion second-quarter profit.* *Trial award in US$ millions per Bennett Jones's account of 2026 SCC 29 (set aside on July 31, 2026); damages claim as alleged by SS&C at trial; BNY net earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, from its SEC filings. [2][9]* [EDGAR's full-text search of quarterly filings](https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=%22SS%26C%20Technologies%20Canada%22&forms=10-Q) returns no [BNY Mellon](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001390777) document naming SS&C's Canadian unit [6], and the ruling has surfaced in Canadian law-firm bulletins rather than the financial press [2][4][5]. ## The next numbers are dated: October 22, then the Ontario docket Sized from the filings, the claim is small for the bank and real for the licensor. SS&C earned $864 million across its last four reported quarters, on revenue that [just printed $1.696 billion, up 10.3 percent](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/data-business-process-services-stocks-172310606.html) [7][8]. The stock has climbed about 20 percent since that print, [closing at $81.03 on October 9](https://investor.ssctech.com/) [8][3]. BNY earned US$1.761 billion in the second quarter alone, so the alleged damages are about half of one quarter of its profit [9]. *Chart: **The claim runs to about half a quarter of SS&C revenue** SS&C quarterly revenue from Q3 2024 to Q2 2026 in US$ billions, with a reference line at the damages SS&C claimed.* *Quarterly revenue in US$ billions from SS&C's SEC filings. The reference line marks the US$889,752,087 SS&C alleged in damages, per Bennett Jones's account of 2026 SCC 29; the US$5,696,850 trial award was set aside on July 31, 2026. [7][2][3]* SS&C reports Q3 on October 22 [3]. The damages go back to the Ontario Superior Court, where a judge must make concrete findings about usage and value from evidence that no longer exists [1][4]. The reassessment has no date yet, which is why it is still unpriced. ## Takeaway Canada's Supreme Court affirmed BNY Mellon destroyed evidence and scrapped the US$5.7 million award, so the reassessment of SS&C's US$889.8 million claim is the only number left to fight over. ## Sources 1. [Wirqo News, "Spoliation and Contract Damages in SS&C v. BNY Mellon, 2026 SCC 29", 9 October 2026](https://news.wirqo.com/spoliation-and-contract-damages-in-ss-c-v-bny-mellon-2026-scc-29/) 2. [Bennett Jones LLP (Ethan Schiff) via JD Supra, "The Supreme Court of Canada Affirms Mandatory Adverse Inference for Spoliation", 6 August 2026](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-supreme-court-of-canada-affirms-6466165/) 3. [SS&C Technologies Investor Relations, corporate overview, stock quote and events, retrieved 10 October 2026](https://investor.ssctech.com/) 4. [Stikeman Elliott LLP (Sam Dukesz and Alexandra Urbanski) via JD Supra, "When Evidence Disappears: The Supreme Court Clarifies Canada's Law of Spoliation", 13 August 2026](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/when-evidence-disappears-the-supreme-4925285/) 5. [Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP via JD Supra, "Handle With Care: Supreme Court of Canada Affirms 'Severe' Penalties for Spoliation of Evidence", 6 August 2026](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/handle-with-care-supreme-court-of-6622724/) 6. [US SEC EDGAR full-text search, query "SS&C Technologies Canada", form 10-Q, retrieved 10 October 2026](https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=%22SS%26C%20Technologies%20Canada%22&forms=10-Q) 7. [SS&C Technologies, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 10 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001402436) 8. [Yahoo Finance (StockStory, Jabin Bastian), "Data & Business Process Services Stocks Q2 Results: Benchmarking SS&C (NASDAQ:SSNC)", 9 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/data-business-process-services-stocks-172310606.html) 9. [BNY Mellon, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 10 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001390777) --- Canada's top court reopens SS&C's US$890 million damages claim against BNY Mellon — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/canada-s-top-court-reopens-ss-c-s-us-890-million-damages-claim-against-bny-mellon