Appeal court finds strata corporation had no legal basis to sue Bruce Findlay
Ruling does not address claim of ‘misrepresentations’ by strata owners
The BC Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of Bruce Findlay, a North Cowichan councillor, in a long-standing legal dispute with a strata corporation in Ladysmith.
In a unanimous decision Wednesday, the three-member appeal court found that the strata corporation had no legal right to sue Findlay under the Real Estate Development Marketing Act for “misrepresentations in a disclosure statement given to purchasers of a development unit.”
The appeal court found that under the act only a “purchaser, from a developer, of a development unit” has a right of legal action, adding the act “expressly limits causes of action for liability for misrepresentation to the purchaser of a development unit in the development property.”
At the time the action was commenced in 2016 all of the owners of strata units at Seaview — a residential development in Ladysmith — were the initial purchasers of the development units from GPI Developments Inc. By the date of trial in BC Supreme Court in February 2023, 13 of the 44 strata units were owned by subsequent purchasers, the court noted.
The decision: https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/ca/24/03/2024BCCA0305.htm
Findlay, a developer and owner of a Maple Bay pub, was first elected to North Cowichan council in 2022.
In March 2023, the BC Supreme Court ordered Findlay to pay $170,960 in damages plus legal costs for “various misrepresentations” to strata owners of the Ladysmith apartment complex.
Findlay served as a director and shareholder of GPI.
Findlay said in a news release that he had been “exonerated" by the appeal court decision. But the court dealt with a technical legal issue.
In ruling that the strata corporation had no legal right to sue Findlay, the appeal court concluded: “It is thus not necessary to address any of the remaining issues raised by the parties.”
The appeal court added that purchasers of development units still have legal remedies, including a potential class action.
Findlay represented himself in supreme court, but had legal representation during the appeal.
Supreme Court Justice Andrew Majawa found Findlay “personally liable for the damages awarded.” GPI was dissolved in 2015.
“It is common ground that GPI did not make a $55,000 contribution to the Strata Corporation’s contingency reserve fund. It is also common ground that GPI did not cause the parking lot to be repaved, nor did it cause the common area plumbing supply lines to be replaced, and nor did GPI cause the entryway communication system to be replaced.”
Seaview consisted of 44 rental suites. GPI intended to renovate the apartment building and convert it to a strata development, selling the strata units to investors as a source of rental income. The units sold in 2011.
Findlay argued that GPI went "above and beyond” in other aspects of the development, but Majawa said that did not make up for the misrepresentations to purchasers of the units.
“There is simply no connection between them.”
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— Larry Pynn, Aug. 22, 2024
