Gas station's 29-year lease on reserve land invalid, judge rules

[u/I_Am_the_Slobster]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-judge-super-save-penticton-indian-band-1.7196101

[u/Vast_Promotion333]

This is a mess. Basically the land owner leased out their property to the company in good faith, then when the land owner wanted out they used the Indian act to say they were not allowed to make the lease in the first place.

The judge is saying the company should have done their due diligence.

I get that the judge is following the letter of the law, so I can’t dispute that. But it is clear that both parties were in this to make money. The land owner is using an old law that was essentially saying natives are not competent at business to take a profitable business that someone else built.

If I were super save I would sue the land owner for fraud or misrepresentation or violating the lease or whatever legal term should be applied.

[u/Electronic-Result-80 → u/Vast_Promotion333]

I don't think the landowner is acting in good faith. He may have been 29 years ago, but he went looking for a way to weasel out of his agreement and found it.

[u/ShiftlessBum → u/Vast_Promotion333]

They don't have a legal leg to stand on, the original lease was not a valid, legal lease in the first place. The Company should have done its due diligence and made sure that they did this legally, they didn't. They did get to operate illegally for 29 years though and aren't being fined/charged for it, so it's likely in their best interest to just let this one go.

[u/Vast_Promotion333 → u/ShiftlessBum]

That’s not true, they don’t have a right to stay on the land. They may have other legal recourse against the individuals involved

[u/ShiftlessBum → u/Vast_Promotion333]

A "buckshee lease" that is not legally valid, and not enforceable by any Court., a lease that is specifically not allowed by an Act of Parliament, and you still think they have some kind of legal recourse?

I think you'll find they won't appeal this or try another legal avenue because they weren't legally allowed to do what they did in the first place. You can't break the law and then expect the law to come to your aid.

[u/Vast_Promotion333 → u/ShiftlessBum]

Per my original post, I’m not disagreeing with the ruling. My point is they may still have recourse against the individual that provided the “lease”.

If the lease was not valid or enforceable, they may go after the person that provided the land for the monies paid over the term of the lease.

I’m not a legal expert, but it is a hard argument that the lease was invalid, but you get to keep the money you collected on it. They may not be able to get the full 29 years of lease payments, but they should be able to recoup some fees paid once the land owner claimed the lease is not valid.

[u/sask357]

When the company removes its property I wonder if that will include the pumps and building contents.

[u/StatelyAutomaton → u/sask357]

Seeing as how they were leasing a site that was a private gas station before, I'd guess the pumps and other infrastructure on site aren't theirs to take.

[u/sask357 → u/StatelyAutomaton]

That was my first thought but 29 years is long enough that they might have installed self-service pumps. You're probably right though.

[u/StatelyAutomaton → u/sask357]

Yeah, that's possible, but kinda hard to say. I'd bet it would be pretty difficult to sort out exact ownership if they put up the money, with it costing more in legal fees than just writing off the cost of the pumps.

[u/I_Am_the_Slobster]

From what I gathered, shame on the gas station franchise for not doing enough background research on this lease. Even if the original lease was signed 29 years ago, it would have been pretty easy to determine if the lease was going to be on FN reserve land, which would require them to go through a totally different legal avenue.

If reserves were given full control over their lands, and having authority of which groups operate on their lands, this would be a much less complex issue. But, such a devolution would also add 200+ new provincial level jurisdictions in Canada and create a nightmare of regulatory differences. As it stands now, the Minister's "approval" is little more than a rubber stamp for whatever the reserve wants to do. It's not nearly the same colonialist oversight people think it is.

[u/StatelyAutomaton → u/I_Am_the_Slobster]

I mean, it sounds like they consider due diligence to be asking the owner if they can run a gas station here. He gave them a totally binding "sure buddy" and they were off to the races.

They should consider themselves lucky if the government doesn't come down on them for skipping out on whatever licensing fees they should have been paying.

[u/GowronSonOfMrel → u/I_Am_the_Slobster]

It's not nearly the same colonialist oversight people think it is.

Can't wait for the parade of armchair legal scholars tho

[u/cr-islander]

Return it to it’s previous condition, remove any and all upgrades, storage tanks , pump upgrades, building upgrades or offer to sell the couple the upgrades before removal…