The University of British Columbia’s Office of the University Counsel is celebrating two significant recent legal victories where claims exceeding $500 million were dismissed and the university was awarded legal costs.
“These legal decisions are critical to protecting academic freedom, and the financial resources of the university to sustain that freedom,” said Stephen Owen, UBC Vice President, External, Legal and Community Relations. “Award of legal cost in both these cases sends an important signal to those who launch frivolous legal attacks on public institutions.”
Last month, a longstanding dispute involving issues of religious belief and academic freedom that escalated into a $30 million lawsuit against the university and four professors was dismissed in the Supreme Court of B.C. The court ordered the plaintiff, former graduate student Cynthia Maugham, to pay the legal costs of the university and the four faculty members.
At issue was whether a university, where expression and discourse are fundamental to the institution, could function properly if it could be subject to claims of negligence such as the one filed by Maughan, who stated she was attacked for her religious beliefs by four professors contrary to the B.C. Civil Rights Protection Act.
Also at issue was the role of the University Act, the legislation that governs UBC, which protects the free expression of ideas on campus and precludes legal actions against the university or its representatives unless there is evidence of bad faith. The court found no such evidence in the plaintiff’s claim.
Earlier, UBC successfully defended the largest financial claim ever made on a Canadian university when arbitrator Gerald Ghikas ruled against a Victoria-based company’s claim alleging breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and failure to act in good faith.
The August ruling capped a 10-year dispute arising from a 1997 research contract AVT had with the university to develop video compression technology for cell phone applications. When it became dissatisfied with the results of the research, AVT contended the university had breached a Collaborative Research Agreement and sought damages for what it claimed was lost profit of US $300 million (approx. CDN $500 million at the time).
After Arbitrator Gerald Ghikas dismissed the $500 million claim, UBC successfully sought an award of $1 million in legal costs to be paid by AVT.
Copies of these decisions are available in the Vancouver Registry of the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
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