Source: https://www.bestlawyers.com/lawyers/craig-a-b-ferris-qc/75221
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 01:39:37+00:00

Document:
Craig Ferris, QC is a litigator and acts for clients in commercial and business disputes. His particular areas of specialization include shareholder remedies, trust, pension and fiduciary disputes, securities and transactional litigation, product liability, mining disputes and real estate litigation. Craig has appeared in all levels of court in British Columbia as well as the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also acted in private arbitrations and in administrative settings including before the British Columbia Securities Commission. Craig has particular expertise in class actions and acted as lead counsel in several successful defences of major class proceedings.
Craig is a regular contributor to Lawson Lundell’s Western Canada Business Litigation Blog, a resource that examines current trends and interesting issues emerging in the legal and business communities.
Successfully represented the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, at both the trial and the appellate levels, in a jurisdictional challenge in relation to its claim for crown immunity from the application of the Excise Tax Act (Canada). (bcIMC v. Canada, 2014 BCSC 1296; bcIMC v. Canada, 2015 BCCA 373).
Represented the Canadian Bar Association as an intervener in the Supreme Court ourt of Canada in a successful constitutional challenge to the application of money laundering laws to lawyers in Canada. The decision supported the protection of solicitor client privilege as a constitutional principle and established the lawyers' duty of commitment to his or her client as a principle of fundamental justice in Canada. (Canada (Attorney General) v. Federation of Law Societies of Canada, 2015 SCC 7).
Successfully represented the British Columbia Pension Corporation in a dispute alleging the wrongful payment of a survivor’s pension benefit. (Fricker v. British Columbia Pension Corporation et al, 2014 BCSC 1729).
Successfully defended at trial and on appeal a complex commercial claim involving breach of fiduciary duty and professional negligence in the context of a real estate acquisition and proposed development in British Columbia. The claim involved allegations relating to the both the solicitation of the investment, and the operation of the limited partnership which acquired the real estate. (Voegtlin v. Paprotka, 2013 BCSC 1613, 2014 BCCA 323).
Successfully represented a real estate developer in an action brought pursuant to the Real Estate Development Marketing Act (British Columbia) asserting rescission of a pre-construction contract of purchase and sale of a residential condominium due to alleged misrepresentations (Chaisson v. Avra Development Corp. 2014 BCSC 925).
Successfully challenged and overturned the election of directors and the passing of all resolutions at an annual general meeting of a publicly traded company and obtained an order for a new meeting. In doing so, Craig had a proxy solicitation system provided by a major Canadian proxy solicitation service found to be oppressive to the company’s shareholders (International Energy and Mineral Resources (Hong Kong) Company Limited v. Mosquito Consolidated Gold Mines Limited, 2012 BCSC 1191).
In 2012, successfully represented a bio-energy producer in a private arbitration and obtained an award relating to the value of bio-fuel from a specific supplier.
Argued a leading decision on the question of the waiver of privilege over client communications in the context of a law firm’s defence of a claim by a non-client (Voegtlin v. Paprotka, 2012 BCSC 728).
Was That A Gift? Or Does Someone Else Own My Land?
Successfully overturned on appeal certification of a major pension class proceeding.
Overturned on appeal certification of a major pension class proceeding and obtained a stay of that proceeding in favour of arbitration.
Successfully obtained pre-certification dismissal of a major class proceeding which sought remedies based on trust, competition law and statutory authorization law issues.
Succeeded in proving fraud against a claimant of disability benefits from a benefit trust.

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