The chief health office on P.E.I. has confirmed there were norovirus cases at Stanhope Resort. (CBC)

A $5 million class action suit has been filed against the owners of Stanhope Beach Resort by people who say they got sick with norovirus after being there earlier this summer.

The suit claims the resort didn't do enough to keep people from getting ill. It was filed in court Thursday by Wagners, a Halifax personal injury law firm. It names Deborah Basco and Christine MacDonald as representative plaintiffs.

The court documents say Basco is a Vancouver doctor who stayed at the resort for five nights with her family beginning on Aug. 17.

"Both her and her spouse became very sick," said Michael Dull, the Wagners lawyer for the plaintiff.

"Being a physician she approached the hotel staff or resort staff and informed them of their belief that they were infected with norwalk virus."

Christine MacDonald visited the resort over the Labour Day weekend for a wedding, say the court documents.

Both women claim they became sick with symptoms that included diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pains.

Michael Dull, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the focus of the lawsuit will be on what the resort owners knew and when. (CBC)

The chief health office on P.E.I. has confirmed close to 300 people were sick with norovirus between mid August and early September. The Health Department ordered food and beverage service at the resort be shut down on Sept. 4, after what appeared to be a second outbreak on the Labour Day weekend.

The class action suit claims the owners of the resort "created insufficient systems and policies to prevent the infection and/or spread of noroviruses at the resort."

The documents go on to say the owners "chose not to notify or warn the plaintiffs or class members of the viral outbreak occurring at the resort in a timely manner."

"The focus is going to be on what did the resort know, what should they have known, what did they do, what were their cleanliness policies, their inspection policies," said Dull.

"The answers to those questions apply equally to everybody."

The plaintiffs and class members want to be reimbursed for missed wages while they were off sick, and for pain and suffering and mental distress.

Paul Murphy, corporate counsel for Stanhope Beach Resort, did not want to comment directly on the class action suit.

"Certainly we know there were a number of guests that were very disappointed by what happened at the resort, and certainly we share their disappointment," said Murphy.

Dull said after a defence is filed his firm will apply to the courts to have the suit certified, meaning a judge has to determine whether the plaintiffs constitute a class.

"One big lawsuit, because the issues are so much in common, is better and preferable than 200 to 300 individual claims, which as you can imagine would clog the court system," said Dull.

The owners of Stanhope Beach Resort have 20 days to file a defence.