What is the test for establishing a common issue in a class action?

The court must be careful to ensure that an issue is genuinely a common issue and not simply made to appear common by the manner in which it is posed. As noted by Madam Justice Fisher in Marshall v. United Furniture Warehouse Limited Partnership, 2013 BCSC 2050, it is important that a common issue is different from a common cause of action, as a common cause of action does not in itself give rise to a common issue (at para. 140). Justice Fisher went on to note that even though class members may have a common cause of action and a commonly phrased theory of liability, a common issue will nonetheless fail to be established where the actual determination of liability for each class member can only be made upon an examination of the relevant, unique circumstances of each class member (at para. 141).