Appeal court rejects strange land claim

B.C.’s top court has rejected an “incoherent” appeal lodged by a man whose claim to part of a cattle ranch in the Boundary region was previously dismissed by a judge in Penticton.

William James Brewis asked the B.C. Court of Appeal to overturn a decision in B.C. Supreme Court that found he has no interest in two properties purchased a decade earlier by a company that owns Willow Springs ranch and campground in Christian Valley, approximately 50 kilometres east of Penticton.

“Unfortunately, the appellant’s submissions on appeal, in his factum and his oral submissions… are, in my view, as incoherent as those made at the hearing of the petition,” Justice Peter Willcock wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel in a Sept. 10 decision that was published online this week.

“It is impossible to discern in them any basis upon which this appeal might be allowed.”

Brewis’s original application in B.C. Supreme Court was dismissed in January 2020.

According to that earlier decision, Brewis relied on what are known as organized pseudolegal commercial arguments, which cite obscure and irrelevant laws to claim property, dodge taxes and even try to get criminal charges dropped.

As such, Brewis, who couldn’t be reached for comment Friday, was ordered by the judge in January 2020 to pay special costs – the amount wasn’t publicized – to the owners of the ranch and campground.

“Mr. Brewis swore an affidavit stating that he is age 46 and he is of sound mind and body. I infer from that that he must have known this action had no possible hope of success and was doomed from the outset. Its dismissal will come as no surprise,” Justice Gary Weatherill wrote in that decision.

“In my view, the petitioner’s conduct, in bringing this illegitimate and ill-conceived petition, is worthy of sanction.”