Facebook fails to get accused fraudster’s lawsuit tossed from B.C. court

Fb has misplaced its bid to toss out a $50-million B.C. lawsuit from an alleged rip-off artist over an “imposter web page” that used his title and likeness.

Vancouver Island resident Timothy Craig Durkin filed go well with in opposition to the social media large in the summertime of 2020, claiming that he had been making an attempt for months to get directors to take down the phoney account with none success.

In response, Fb, now often known as Meta Platforms Inc., filed an software in B.C. Supreme Courtroom to have the declare struck as an abuse of course of.

Final week, Justice John Steeves declined to strike the file, discovering that regardless of Durkin’s checkered authorized previous, there isn’t a proof of “evasive, combative, intentionally obscure or dishonest” behaviour on this case.

“I don’t agree with the defendants that the declare discloses no affordable declare, that it’s pointless, scandalous, frivolous or vexatious, that it might prejudice, embarrass or delay the truthful trial or listening to of the continuing, or that it’s in any other case an abuse of the method of the court docket,” Steeves wrote in his judgment.

“The declare has its difficulties, for positive, however I’m unable at this stage to conclude that it’s sure to fail.”

Durkin is representing himself in court docket, and the decide discovered a variety of points together with his present discover of declare. Steeves mentioned it can’t proceed in its present type and instructed Durkin to revise the declare to incorporate extra specifics about his allegations of negligence in opposition to the social media firm.

Lengthy authorized historical past in B.C. and the U.S.

Fb had argued, partly, that Durkin’s lawsuit must be tossed due to “a historical past of deliberate and wilful non-compliance with the foundations and orders of this court docket within the context of different litigation.”

Certainly, Durkin’s title has surfaced within the information repeatedly in recent times as he has turn out to be embroiled in case after case in civil and prison courts, together with securities proceedings.

He is significantly well-known in relation to his six-year authorized battle over possession of the famend Sooke Harbour Home lodge.

In 2020, a decide sided with Frederique and Sinclair Philip, awarding them $4 million of their struggle to wrest management of the lodge from Durkin and his accomplice Rodger Gregory. 

In a scathing choice, the decide described Durkin as a “garden-variety bully” who’s “fully unencumbered by bizarre norms of morality, integrity and decency,” noting that Durkin swore a false affidavit to acquire an injunction holding the Philips away from the lodge.

Sadly, by the point the Philips had been lastly victorious, the lodge had already been bought throughout foreclosures proceedings.

The B.C. Securities Fee has alleged that Durkin defrauded an investor of $1 million by means of the sale of a pretend possession curiosity within the lodge, and findings in that case are anticipated this fall. 

Durkin additionally not too long ago misplaced his defamation lawsuit in opposition to Victoria-based on-line publication The Capital Day by day over reporter Tori Marlan’s investigative article entitled “The man who stole a hotel: How Timothy Durkin took control of Sooke Harbour House.”

The judge in that case discovered that Marlan’s work was “a high-quality piece of long-form journalism” and that permitting Durkin’s lawsuit to proceed would create a chilling impact on media investigations within the public curiosity.

South of the border, Durkin has been accused of running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme in Alabama. He has denied any involvement or information of the rip-off.

Within the Fb case, the “imposter” account appeared to have been set as much as troll Durkin in relation to the alleged Ponzi scheme. It included a profile picture with Durkin’s face and a canopy picture of palms in handcuffs. 

Durkin claims he and others reported the web page’s existence by means of a web based type for non-Fb customers, however he acquired a message informing him there was an issue, stating that “we’re engaged on getting it fastened as quickly as potential.”

In line with the lawsuit, Durkin claims he continued to get the identical response within the following months and finally despatched a letter by courier to the managing director of Fb Canada requesting the “imposter web page be torn down from the social media community.”

In line with Steeves’s judgment, Durkin says the web page was taken down after a CBC article appeared about his lawsuit in opposition to Fb. It was lively for 5 months in all, the decide mentioned.