A civil trial against the Bowen Island Municipality filed by Zongshen Envirotech Ltd. was put on hold last week due to the illness of the municipality’s lawyer. The plaintiff in this case blames the municipality’s “delay tactics” for his inability to build docks on his properties at Cape Roger Curtis prior to May, 2015, when council adopted a bylaw banning docks on that area of Bowen Island’s shoreline.
Mayor Murray Skeels says a number of the plaintiff ’s arguments have already been knocked down by the court case launched by other Cape Roger Curtis property owners that was ruled upon by the BC Supreme Court in April, 2016.
“In this case the plaintiff is relying a piece of Common Law relating to a ‘commitment to use’,” says Skeels. “On one of the properties on the shore of CRC, this doctrine was in effect because a concrete pad had been put in place, indicating that construction was underway. Zongshen’s argument is that money and time invested shows a similar intent to build. These are tricky cases and the outcome will be determined by the strength of legal arguments on both sides. It’s impossible to determine the outcome.”
The case is currently scheduled to be heard in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on September 1.
