Oei v. Hui, 2020 BCCA 214
Ken McEwan, K.C. and Emily Kirkpatrick successfully represented the appellant/defendants, Terry Hui and Concord Pacific Acquisitions, in overturning a decision on an application to strike the plaintiffs’ claim.
The application and appeal concerned the tort of abuse of process the elements on which had long been the source of uncertainty in the province. Ken and Emily successfully argued that a plea of “knowing falsity” cannot be relied upon to transform a proper claim into an improper one and that to do so would, among other things, impinge on the protection afforded by absolute privilege. They also successfully advanced the position that the “overt act” was a requisite element of the tort, notwithstanding some expressions of judicial uncertainty over the past three decades.
Read the case here.
