Although a legal battle worth billions of dollars has been won on behalf of disabled Canadian veterans, not everyone is satisfied with the ruling.

On Friday, an Ontario Superior Court judge ordered the federal government to transfer $4.6 billion to a special trust fund for veterans.

In his ruling, Justice John Brockenshire said that disabled veterans and their families are owed the money for "unrealized investment potential" in their pensions.

Filed in 1999, the case accused the government of putting the funds -- of mentally and physically disabled veterans deemed incapable of managing money themselves -- in non-interest-bearing accounts.

But not all veterans see the ruling as a victory.

"We feel it's wrong," said Cliff Chadderton, CEO of the War Amps and chairman of the National Council of Veteran Associations of Canada. "It shouldn't be a debt against the taxpayers. The veteran got his money's worth when he was in hospital because he got his pension. If he didn't get interest on it, so what."

Chadderton told the Canadian Press 99 per cent of the veterans who would qualify for a settlement are now dead, so the money will end up in the hands of their relatives when it should be destined to address surviving veterans' issues.

Roger Langen is also unsatisfied. His father George fought in the Second World War, but was never the same after returning to Canada. He battled mental illness and was eventually hospitalized.

Like many others in his situation, the federal government took control of his pension, but never paid interest or invested the money.

Langen is happy with the legal victory, but said a simple apology is still lacking.

"I remain distressed that the government has throughout this time issued not a single word of regret for their fault in this manner, so my dad is still in struggle with his own government," Langen said.

Although the ruling was short of the $5.9 billion sought by the veterans, lawyers acting on their behalf have said they're pleased with the outcome.

Asked for his reaction to the ruling, veterans' lawyer Raymond Colautti said the decision was long overdue.

"I hope that Canadians will scream bloody murder over the mismanagement on the part of the Canadian government in the way they dealt with this," Colautti told reporters at a news conference in Toronto Friday.

"They effectively took the veterans' money, put it in their sock and hid it under their mattress."

The class action suit sought payment on behalf of approximately 30,000 veterans of various wars and peacekeeping missions dating back to 1919.

Although the case has been before the courts for almost seven years, Crown lawyers have indicated an appeal is likely.

The Supreme Court has already weighed in on the issue, ruling in 2003 that the government's position did not infringe veterans' rights.

That decision also described the government's decision not to pay as "unfortunate," opening a legal door for veterans to keep pursuing the case.