Suspended Vancouver lawyer ordered to pay neighbour $30K for time spent dealing with pseudo-legal lawsuit

A suspended Vancouver lawyer who lost a "frivolous" lawsuit against her neighbour over a glass deck divider has been ordered to pay the woman nearly $30,000 in costs, likely ending a case that legal experts had described as highly unusual.

Naomi Arbabi had claimed trespass against her neighbour, Colleen McLelland. McLelland declined an interview, but her lawyer spoke to CBC News on Tuesday.

"She's feeling both pleased and somewhat vindicated by the fact that she obtained a reasonable amount of compensation for being dragged through the proceedings she was dragged through," said Greg Palm, managing partner at Hamilton Duncan Law Corporation.

One expert on pseudo-legal arguments described the case as "magical gibberish," while another said it was "extraordinarily rare" to see such a claim from a practising lawyer. The judge who dismissed the case said it bore the hallmarks of claims made by OPCA [Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments] litigants" — legal theories favoured by fringe groups like Sovereign Citizens and Freemen on the Land.

In her original claim filed in October, Arbabi accused McLelland of trespassing upon her by obstructing her mountain view when the strata of their Fairview condo building installed a 1.7-metre-high opaque glass privacy divider on McLelland's rooftop deck.

A judge dismissed the case in January and ordered Arbabi to pay special costs — money "generally awarded as a punishment for conduct that the court determines to be reprehensible," Palm said. The only issue left to sort out was the amount Arbabi needed to pay.

According to the ruling Monday, McLelland offered Arbabi a deal: They could settle costs for just over $14,200 if Arbabi paid by March 8.

Arbabi agreed to the dollar amount, but said she would pay in instalments over the next 40 years.

McLelland declined to wait until 2064, so the issue went back to court.

In her decision, special registrar Meg Gaily said Arbabi needed to pay McLelland a little more than $29,500 to cover the time and money she had spent representing herself, adding McLelland had to take more time researching and learning civil procedure "to deal with the OPCA litigation than she otherwise would have."

Gaily said the special costs will also go toward reimbursing Palm and the legal team, who helped McLelland on a pro bono basis.

"Ms. Arbabi chose to litigate in a manner that was ... repugnant to the oath that she and I both swore when we became lawyers to uphold the rule of law and to refrain from bringing proceedings on frivolous pretenses," said Palm, speaking to why he took the case on for free.

"At the end of the day, this award reflects the fact that there are consequences for doing that."

Arbabi has the right to apply to the court for a review of a registrar's decision for 14 days. CBC News contacted Arbabi for comment through her custodian, which is a practising lawyer appointed to manage or to wind up a legal practice. The custodian referred the inquiry to the Law Society of B.C., which declined to reach out to Arbabi, citing confidentiality.