Burden of Truth – Cause in Fact

By: Stacy Miller

It’s the Season Finale of “Burden of Truth” and Billy (Peter Mooney) and Joanna’s (Kristin Kreuk) burden of truth to prove their claim against Matheson Steel rest on them.

Luna’s (Star Slade) is relieved to see Owen (Meegwun Fairbrother) back on his job as a Millwood cop and asks about his head injury. “Did it have anything to do with our case?” “It was time for me to pick a side anyway,” Owen tells Luna. She questions him about how her father David Hanley can abandon his kid. “It takes more than biology to make a dad,” Owen says. He comments how his biological father wasn’t a part of his life but he had his stepdad. Owen reminds Luna that even though he and her mother didn’t work out, he considers himself her stepfather. He tells Luna that she’ll have to face David no matter how much it hurts.

Billy arrives at Crawford and Associates to find Joanna sitting in the dark. They have no power nor heat.  Billy assures he’ll take care of it and admits that he hasn’t been exactly honest about the firm’s finances. Joanna believes CTS (Carver, Thatcher and Stokes) called in a phony gas leak to make things difficult for them as they’ve been doing by burying them in useless motions. Billy reminds Joanna she could help their case by using the letter from Mayor Shephard. “I don’t want to go there,” Joanna tells Billy. Just then, David Hanley (Alex Carter) enters. He laughs how the building where Crawford and Associates now sits used to be the old five and dime. Joanna tells her father that his motion for summary judgement is just a procedural hurdle. “You won’t win your case against PNL. But we’re prepared to make you an offer,” David tells his daughter as he pulls out papers from his briefcase. The offer is the girls split a one million dollar settlement payable over five years, Ben Matheson (David Lawrence Brown) keeps his promise to clean up the field and they also receive cash to pay their medical bills. In exchange, CTS requires full confidentially. Joanna refuses. David tells her that the girls won’t get a better offer than that and encourages Billy to take it. Billy tells him he’ll present it to their clients.

Molly (Sara Thompson) tells Luna that she’ll have to sell her car if they don’t get an offer. She comments how the car was their ticket to getting out of Millwood and seeing the world.  Molly would have started with seeing the ocean. Luna assures her girlfriend that Molly can still study sports medicine. But Molly reminds that option is in Winnipeg, and Luna will be in school in Montreal. And Molly refuses to allow Luna to give up Montreal.

Ben tells Taylor (Anwen O’Driscoll) about PNL’s offer and asks her to talk to the girls and encourage them to accept it. Molly agrees. With one condition…she wants her father to accept responsibility by apologizing to the girls.

The girls meet with Billy and Joanna at Crawford and Associates to vote on the offer. Molly votes yes to take the offer as she wants to get out of Millwood. But she’s outvoted 3-1 so Joanna tells them they’ll move forward.

David is having breakfast at Riverside Grill when Luna approaches him. She tells him that she knows he is her father. David insists she’s been misinformed. “DNA tests says otherwise,” Luna says. David knows the DNA comparison used was that from his daughter (Joanna). He reminds that sibling DNA doesn’t count. David tells Luna that someone else knocked up her mother but it wasn’t him. He wipes off his spoon and coffee cup before leaving the diner. At home, Luna cries to her mother and asks why David doesn’t want her. Gerrilyn (Jessica Matten) tells Luna that David doesn’t deserve her (Luna). Luna wishes Owen were her father. Gerrilyn does too.

Taylor wants Ben to admit just to her his culpability in the dumping of the waste.

The next day on the street, Gerrilyn gives Joanna a mysterious piece of paper and says that it should tell her everything she needs to know about her father. “You do the math. You can use it,” Gerrilyn says.

At the courthouse, Joanna tells the court that they’ll prove cause in fact is responsible for the girls’ symptoms. Joanna calls her first witness: Ben Matheson. She asks Ben whether he ever dumped toxic waste. Ben testifies under oath that he never dumped waste. Next, Nate Dawson (Richard Clarkin) testifies that Ben Matheson told him to dump the waste and said that the parent company PNL was happy with the way he (Ben) was doing things. And Matheson paid him an extra grand a month. But in questioning Nate, David shows Dawson made $42,000 a year working for Matheson Steel. However, he never reported to the family court the extra grand a month he supposedly received as a bonus from Ben Matheson for dumping the toxic waste. So, David’s question is whether Nate lied to family court or is lying to this one.

Joanna is angry that Nate’s testimony as a witness was impeached, throwing out his credibility. She goes through the boxes again hoping to find something to prove PNL knew Matheson Steel was dumping the waste. Billy asks to see Mayor Shephard’s letter. He thinks it’s time they go to City Hall to see the mayor. Joanna tells Billy she can’t talk to another of her father’s girls. So, Billy goes to see the mayor and admits he knows about her involvement with David Hanley and asks for her help. When she declines, Billy realizes in the case of us for them, the mayor has chosen them. Billy returns to Crawford and Associates. Joanna blames herself for coming to Millwood. If she hadn’t come and gotten involved in the case, her father wouldn’t be there to fight them. Billy assures that coming to Millwood was the right decision. She helped them uncover the barrels and the reason why the girls were getting sick.

Luna again approaches David Hanley at Riverside Grill and tells him he’s being called as a material witness in the girls of Millwood’s case. “You’ve been served,” Luna says smiling as she walks away.

Owen tells Diane (Nicola Correia-Damude) he’s not going to let her leave town and him.

The next day on the stand, Joanna questions David about the purchase of sale of Matheson Steel to PNL. In the original sale purchase, the price was twenty-eight million but there wasn’t a liability clause in the agreement. But there was another agreement in which the sale price was thirty million. It seems that two million was taken off when the liability for future claims was removed. The judge calls a recess until tomorrow morning. Outside the courtroom, David presents a new offer in which the girls get five hundred grand each paid out over ten years. But Joanna asks for two million per girl with one million set aside in a fund for Matheson Steel to assure cleanup. And if he doesn’t sell his client on the deal and convince him to accept it, Joanna promises to question him about the piece of paper Gerrilyn gave her when they go back inside the courtroom.  “Is this how it’s going to be?” David asks before walking away. “What was that?” Billy asks Joanna, who hands him the paper. It is a copy of Gerrilyn’s birth certificate which proves she was a minor when she and David were together and when Luna was born.

The next day, David tells the judge his client accepts the proposed settlement offer of two million per girl with one million for cleanup. So, the judge brings the case of Molly Ross v. Matheson Steel to a close and adjourns the court. Outside the courtroom, David gloats that PNL cut him a deal if he kept the settlement under twenty million. “I’m going to make more money off this than anyone,” David gloats. “Well aren’t you clever,” Joanna says as she walks away from her father.

That night, Billy and girls celebrate Crawford and Associates’ victory. Billy thanks Molly saying he couldn’t do it without her. Billy calls his niece the case MVP. Joanna returns the copy of Gerrilyn’s birth certificate to her. Gerrilyn says she’s not afraid of David anymore as Luna is of age and he can’t take her away from her. Gerrilyn wants David to pay for what he did to her, but Joanna reminds her father won’t go to jail because the law is built for people like him to come out on top. Seeing Taylor outside, Joanna says she wishes she could have done something for the girl. Joanna suggests that it may be better for Taylor to just walk away from her father.

When she returns to Crawford and Associates, Joanna tells Billy to give her portion of the fee back to the girls. She declines Billy’s offer to become a permanent partner of Crawford and Associates and has taken a job in Winnipeg. Joanna later tells Diana she couldn’t practice in Millwood “I can’t hang up a sign that says Hanley not in Millwood,” Joanna says. “You are not him, it was never on you to pay for his sins,” Diane reminds. Joanna promises to keep in touch with her friend this time but by phone because Joanna doesn’t have any social media accounts.

Taylor finds a key in the shed and uses it to open a padlock to the door of another room. The room probably contains the money Ben Matheson hid. Then, Taylor boards a bus. Bye Millwood.

Luna and Molly are in Molly’s car to begin their road trip. Although they will see both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, they decide to see the Pacific first. The girls send Owen a photo which he shares with Diane and smiles as they sit on a bench in the playground watching Diane’s girls on the swing.

Billy receives a call about a new case and tells the caller that he and his associates can set up a meeting with them to discuss as new case is too big for them.

In Winnipeg, Joanna walks into an office building and address the building security guard. “Steadman Lavery. I’m a new partner, it’s my first day.” “And your name?” the building security guard asks. “Chang. Joanna Chang.”