Alina Chekh wins penalty petition at BC Supreme Court

Alina simultaneously successfully brought and defended a petition for judicial review on behalf of her client, the Chief Inspector of Mines.

The two petitions before the Court address the construction of s. 36.6(1) of the Mines Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 293 (the “Act”) in the context of an administrative monetary penalty. In her petition, Alina challenged the finding of the Environmental Appeal Board that the penalty was statute-barred by the limitation period in the Act. Alina’s challenge to the underlying decision was successful. A corresponding judicial review application by the recipient of the administrative monetary penalty was unsuccessful.

To read the decision, visit 2023 BCSC 1328. For more information on Allen / McMillan’s administrative law practice, please contact Alina at alina@amlc.ca.

Congratulations to Kaitlyn Meyer for joining the partnership at AMLC!

Congratulations to Kaitlyn Meyer for joining the partnership at Allen / McMillan Litigation Counsel as of July 1st!

Kaitlyn joined the firm shortly after it opened in 2018, and has a rare enthusiasm for the law that allows her to thrive when faced with complex cases. With a broad commercial litigation practice, and appearances before administrative tribunals, the International Court of Arbitration in New York, all levels of court in British Columbia, and the Supreme Court of Canada, Kaitlyn’s experience has been an incredible asset to the team.

It is with great pleasure that we announce that Kaitlyn has joined Greg and Wes as a Partner of the firm.

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.

Congratulations to AMLC’s Articled Student, Chloe Trudel

Congratulations to AMLC’s Chloe Trudel who was called to the bar on May 16, 2023. 

Chloe obtained her law degree from The University of British Columbia, during which she volunteered and worked for the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic and participated in the Kawaskimhon Moot.

Chloe will join AMLC as an associate on June 5, 2023!

Summer student, Vivian Li, joins Allen McMillan

AMLC is pleased to welcome its new summer student, Vivian Li, to the team.  Vivian is a second-year law student at UBC where she volunteers as a peer tutor and mentor to first-year law students.  Vivian will complete her summer articles with the firm from May 8 to August 18, 2023.

We are excited to have Vivian join our team!