Not legal advice, as usual. Kudos to The Georgia Straight for noticing this.

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has quashed an ex Vice-President’s bizarre September 2019 Tribunal award - sought & obtained secretly & WITHOUT AUTHORITY from his 17 unit 40 + year old White Rock B.C. STRATA corporation - against another ex-Director.

That 'ghost' Director continued the unauthorized Tribunal action secretly even after himself totally leaving the Board ! ! The judgment describes that "ghost" or rogue Director's conduct as "reprehensible".

The judge also describes the 2019 Tribunal process events as “botched”.

( Unlike the widespread usual protocol for judgment-writing, this latest decision pointedly & unusually provides zero identifiers about the "botched" 2019 Tribunal event. Such forces any reviewer or interested member of the public to track down the 2019 Tribunal. But that's been done below. )

B.C.’s hoodwinked C.R.T. Civil Resolution Tribunal itself, the S.R.L. self-represented target owner who had earlier failed in 2019 to persuade Tribunal staff & Adjudicator about the arguably fraudulent & unauthorized advocacy, and the strata corporation itself, ALL joined to urge the quashing of the bizarre 2019 award.

Factuals

In 2019 from B.C.’s C.R. T. Civil Resolution Tribunal and totally without strata Council ( Board ) authority the voodoo award had been secretly sought in the strata corporation’s name by its then Vice-President Director .

Without standing nor Board approval the application sought to collect considerably LESS THAN what the Corporation was concurrently beginning to formally lien against a strata unit. ( Such difference platforms a possible defence against the larger claim ! . . . )

Such target unit was occupied by a former Director withholding monthly $ 350 monthly fees after being unseated in 2014. Was there anything personal ? That target former Director still claims that strata decisions & elections since that unseating are invalid, and there’s a lengthy further background of litigation outcomes over a 12 year period.

Behind the here harshly – condemned bogus application & held - "botched" 2019 award, one might speculate about some personal animus or grudge. But the judge’s harsh criticism of the stunt does NOT go that far.

( For comparison, in Ontario, section 23 “Action by Corporation” of Ontario’s Condominium Act 1998 exempts condo corporations from having to serve prior notice to general owners & mortgagees before starting to sue. But exempted are unit liening & Small Claims filings. Non-exempted starts of litigation are also reportable in the mass of paperwork & Status Certificates. The Ontario Tribunal’s jurisdiction - far narrower than B.C.’s - is being expanded from mere records requests to people / pets / parking / storage etc . . https://ontario.cafcor.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=46&func=view&id=19127&catid=2 )

GOING S.R.L. - is it smart ?

The target unit owner in 2019 and recently may have paid a STEEP price for being S.R.L. self-represented and maybe vexing.

1 - At the judicially-cited “botched” process in 2019 the ( lawyer ) Member adjudicator expected the victim to prove a negative and refused to bother to challenge a suspiciously inculpatory reply given by the rogue Director to Tribunal case managers acting on the victim's repeated upfront protests. C.R.T. Fulltime C.R.T. Members incidentally are shown paid in the $ 118 K - $130 K salary range.

2 - AND this time around the victim’s Petition for Judicial Review arguably even gets him AGAIN arguably re-victimized in Supreme Court itself !

Not only does the judge allow the Strata Corporation to gate-crash the Petition filed solely against the hoodwinked Tribunal, he even awards some costs AGAINST the victim to the gate-crashers ! That’s of further concern, given that the rogue Director’s shenanigans had been unsupervised by other Directors, protested vainly by the victim to C.R.T staff upfront. And now the negligent non-party corporation gets merrily allowed to crash the victim’s Petition party & actually suck up some costs from the victim himself ! !

3 - One more strong reason to stay away from condos /stratas / Building Schemes. OR suck it all up. OR chose battlegrounds VERY carefully . . . . . .

Louis v Civil Resolution Tribunal, 2020 BCSC 2061 issued Nov 27/20 http://canlii.ca/t/jcb40

The Owners, Strata Plan NW 499 v. Louis et al, 2019 BCCRT 1093 issued Sep 17/19 http://canlii.ca/t/j5b5f

There are other judgments

Dec 28/20 Georgia Straight “Strata council member slammed for filing legal action against homeowner without other members' consent” by Charles Smith
https://www.straight.com/news/strata-council-member-slammed-for-filing-legal-action-against- homeowner-without-other-members