Richmond developer says its fee simple land interests are directly affected by historic Aboriginal title judgment last August in B.C. Supreme Court
Article content
Montrose Properties is asking a B.C. Supreme Court judge to re-open the Cowichan Tribes trial because last summer’s judgment granting Aboriginal title in the case caused a “tectonic shift” for the Richmond landowner.
Article content
The land owner argued on Day 1 of a two-day hearing on Monday that its financial interests were directly and significantly impacted by the decision by Justice Barbara Young last Aug. 7 that granted Cowichan Tribes Aboriginal title over a large part of southeast Richmond.
Article content
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
Montrose owns warehouses, a Coca-Cola bottling plant and other facilities on the land and has said the ruling has affected the status of its holdings and, in one case, led to a potential deal being put on hold after Cowichan Nation was granted title to the land in a court case Montrose was not involved in.
Article content
Sunrise
Article content
The Montrose lawyer, Joan Young, argued in a Victoria courtroom on Monday that it is entitled to be included as a defendant and it wants the case reopened, which she said was rare but not unprecedented.
Article content
The company wants the chance to provide evidence about the how the judgment directly affects its fee simple ownership and its business interests, she told court.
Article content
“This is an significant uncertainty for Montrose” to the extent that it could affect whether they could continue to retain 100 per cent of the economic benefits that they have from their ownership now that the court has ruled fee simple ownership and Aboriginal title both exist on its lands.
Article content
Submissions followed by the federal and B.C. governments, both named in the lawsuit filed by Cowichan Tribes in 2014.
Article content
Both governments’ lawyers support Montrose’s bid to be added as a defendant and to re-open the case to hear how Montrose, and by extension the other 150 landowners with fee simple ownership, could be affected.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
The lawyer for the province said it argued consistently before and during the 513 days of trial over the years that private property owners should have been given notice of Cowichan Tribes’ lawsuit because of the potential impact on their property rights.
Article content
Read More
Article content
But the lawyer for the Cowichan Tribes, which opposes reopening the trial, said the trial concluded with the judgment in August and the arguments were already made and considered by the judge in her ruling.
Article content
“To come to court today and to relitigate those issues amounts to an abuse of process,” David Robbins said.
Article content
“Montrose tried to argue it was surprised” by the August judgment, but “the law in British Columbia is clear, and was clear before this trial started that private landowners were not proper partners in the case where there is no claim made against them.”
Article content
For Montrose to claim they didn’t know or couldn’t know the outcome of the litigation is “astonishing” because they had millions of dollars of investment on lands where there was an Aboriginal title claim.
Article content
Robbins said Montrose doesn’t have “direct interest.”
