Greg Allen and Kaitlyn Meyer Successfully Defend Appeal

Greg and Kaitlyn successfully defended an appeal of their win at trial — a judgement dismissing the appellants’ claims of not one, but two actions.

At trial, the Court ruled in favour of the defendants and dismissed the entirety of the plaintiffs’ claims in the two underlying actions, including the finding that they were statute barred and amounted to an abuse of process. The trial decision can be found here and our prior post about is here.

The Court of Appeal found that the trial judge did not fall into a palpable and overriding error by concluding that he could not give weight to the opinion of the appellants’ expert, which depended on an unproven assumption. As a result, it was open to the trial judge to conclude, based on the evidence before him, that the principal of one of the loans at issue was not repaid in 2006. Further, the Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge’s findings that the New Westminster Action was statute barred. In doing so, the Court of Appeal also held that there was a clear alternate basis, separate from the limitation issues, supporting the dismissal of the claims.

For more information on this case, visit 2023 BCCA 262. For more information on Allen / McMillan’s commercial litigation and appellate advocacy practices, please contact Greg at greg@amlc.ca and Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@amlc.ca.

John Trueman wins application for a stay of proceedings

In this case, John successfully applied to stay a civil proceeding until related family proceedings could be heard and determined. John’s client is engaged in high-conflict family litigation with his ex-spouse, who also brought a civil claim against John’s client seeking similar orders as she is seeking in the family litigation.

John successfully argued that there is no benefit to tying up court resources through two proceedings seeking the same relief at the same time, and that the interests of justice favoured a stay of proceedings in the civil claim. In the result, the plaintiff’s application to move forward with discovery in the civil claim was dismissed, and John’s application for a stay of proceedings was granted.

For more information on this case, visit 2023 BCSC 1159. For more information on Allen / McMillan’s civil litigation practice, please contact John at john@amlc.ca.

Greg Allen wins in land title trial

In this case, Greg represented a purchaser of residential property whose purchase was thwarted by a third party asserting that the vendor held the property in trust for him. The third party did not assert his trust interest in the property until after Greg’s client paid the full purchase price to the vendor.

In her decision, the chambers judge confirmed that British Columbia operates on a “first in time” system of land title registration, and held that the third party could not block the transfer of title to Greg’s client after the purchase price had already been paid. Greg successfully obtained an order that the caveat against title filed by the third party be struck, and that the property be transferred to his client.

To read the decision, visit 2023 BCSC 1111. For more information on Allen / McMillan’s civil litigation practice, please contact Greg at greg@amlc.ca.

John Trueman wins privacy victory at BC Court of Appeal

The BC Court of Appeal struck down a section of BC’s child protection law that gives social workers unfettered access to personal health information held by public bodies.

In a 3-0 decision, the Court found that section 96(1) of the Child, Family, and Community Service Act was an unconstitutional infringement of section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees that “everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.”

Along with Paul LeBlanc and Susan E. Ross, Allen/McMillan Litigation Counsel associate, John Trueman, represented T.L., a mother of three with a history of trauma and mental health struggles.  When T.L. sought to regain custody of her children, social workers issued demands for her medical records and those of her family to the local hospital and a family services agency from which she had been receiving services.  The requested records dated back years before she had children.  T.L. challenged the constitutionality of the law which, she said, made her less comfortable confiding in doctors and others who sought to help her.

Writing for a unanimous division, Justice DeWitt-Van Oosten held that British Columbians have a high expectation of privacy in their medical records, and that s. 96(1) is not minimally intrusive because it allows the collection of a broad range of medical records without any meaningful oversight.  As such, she declared that the law is “of no force or effect,” but suspended the declaration of invalidity for 12 months to allow the Legislature to fashion a new law.

AMLC’s John Trueman maintains a broad litigation practice with a focus on appellate and public law litigation.  He has a keen interest in privacy issues.  As the former Vice-Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s Constitutional and Civil Liberties Section, he collaborates with noteworthy counsel — in this case, family lawyer, Paul LeBlanc and privacy expert, Susan E. Ross — to help take on challenging issues.  This was his first time delivering oral argument in the Court of Appeal.

For more information on Allen/McMillan’s appellate advocacy and public law litigation practices, please contact John at john@amlc.ca. For more information on this case, visit 2023 BCCA 167 and for additional press coverage visit here and here.

Greg Allen and Kaitlyn Meyer Successfully Defend Jurisdiction Application

Greg and Kaitlyn successfully defended an application by two of several defendants to have the claims against them dismissed or stayed on jurisdictional grounds.

The underlying action involves claims of misrepresentation, fraud and breach of contract arising from the plaintiffs’ investment in an energy drink company and a related farming business. The two defendants argued the claims surrounding the farming business were closely tied to Alberta and that a forum selection clause in an agreement between some of the parties favoured the jurisdiction of the Alberta courts. The BC Supreme Court disagreed, finding that the forum selection clause did not confer exclusive jurisdiction on the Alberta courts and that Alberta was not a clearly more appropriate forum for the claims against the two defendants. The Court also declined to order security for costs against the plaintiffs.

For more information on this case, visit 2023 BCSC 219. For more information on Allen / McMillan’s commercial litigation practice, please contact Greg at greg@amlc.ca or Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@amlc.ca.

Greg Allen, Kaitlyn Meyer and Victoria Baylis win 7-day trial

Greg, Kaitlyn and Victoria acted for the defendants who had entered a series of financial transactions with the plaintiffs over the course of several years, primarily to fund the plaintiffs’ real estate development projects. The plaintiffs filed two actions alleging, among other claims, that they had overpaid the defendants. There was very little documentation recording the parties’ transactions. Moreover, many of the allegations raised by the plaintiffs were addressed in prior related proceedings.

The two actions were heard together at trial. The court found in favour of the defendants and dismissed the entirety of the plaintiffs’ claims, including finding that they were statute barred and amounted to an abuse of process.

For more information on this case, visit 2022 BCSC 1717. For more information on Allen / McMillan’s commercial litigation practice, please contact Greg at greg@amlc.ca, Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@amlc.ca or Victoria at victoria@amlc.ca.