Epic court battle between recluse and his brother ends

Pyrrhic victory: B.C. guide business at centre of fight

Afeud with the sweep of a historical novel involving a northern B.C. guiding business and a pair of prominent Florida lawyers — estranged brothers — spanning 30 years seems to have ended.

Harold Lewis Sr. was once a key political lobbyist in Florida — appointed state Inspector General partly in recognition for supporting then-governor Lawton Chiles.

Lewis negotiated the state’s $11.3-billion settlement with the tobacco industry in 1997 to recover tax dollars spent on smoking-related disease.

But he fell from grace later that year and ended up living as a recluse in remotest B.C. — a place called Crying Girl Prairie.

You can’t get much more off the grid — the nearest telephone and fax at the time were more than 60 kilometres away and mail went to a post office box in Fort St. John, 190 kilometres southeast.

Meanwhile, his brother Eugene remained in Florida where he had been practising law and dabbling in various businesses.

The collapse of a plan to develop a Sheraton hotel next to Tallahassee’s Civic Centre and other soured dealings turned Harold and Eugene — once partners — into Cain and Abel.

The fallout of the tobacco scandal and the falling out of the brothers led to mistrust, triggering the internecine legal epic.

This bitter tale begins in 1971 after Harold went hunting in the isolated bush of B.C.’s northeastern shoulder.

He returned a year later with Eugene and friends. One thing led to another and they ended up incorporating Big Nine Outfitters Ltd., purchasing the business of guide Gary Powell.

By 1975, Harold, Eugene and Gary, who later died in a 1983 plane crash, each owned onethird of the shares. Initially, the business was a success.

In 1978, Harold and Eugene created the Big Nine Trust for the benefit of their children and transferred to it their shares in the Big Nine.

But years later things went awry between the brothers.

Harold’s career came to a crashing halt in 1997 when he became the subject of a protracted investigation into allegations of cronyism in the tobacco case.

His job was to guard against legal and ethical lapses among the public service so Harold had little choice given the accusations but to resign.

In the end, no charges were laid, but he was ruined.

By April 2000, Harold was burnt out, his marriage was over and that June he moved to Crying Girl Prairie and became a recluse.

From June 2000 through to 2007, save and except for some brief trips back to the U.S., Harold’s only connection to the outside world was picking up his mail every five weeks. The court was told he hasn’t spoken to Eugene since August 2000.

Geographic and emotional distance exacerbated existing ill will and the ravaged relationship resulted in confusion and business decisions that triggered lawsuits over the disposition of the Big Nine business and the trust.

The legal actions blossomed into a breach of trust suit launched by Harold and his children after the business was wound up in 2004.

Now that the Court of Appeal has issued a judgment supporting Eugene and the deal that was made, the legal conflict may be at an end.

The judicial rulings — six sets of reasons for judgment, the first issued Feb. 8, 2010 — are themselves a sad saga occupying two large volumes reciting in dry legalese the facts behind the family grudge as it played out.

During the course of the proceedings, 79 interlocutory applications were filed, 144 affidavits prepared and 48 orders made. The first submitted list of 4,497 relevant documents contained some 16,430 pages. The final amended statement of claim in the consolidated action was 43 pages long!

There were 23 days of examinations for discovery. The transcripts totalled 3,506 pages. Before trial, the parties were in court 66 times. The trial consumed 73 days. There were 647 exhibits filed. Four expert witnesses testified. Those transcripts contained 3,930 pages. The parties’ closing submissions exceeded 1,000 pages and referred to more than 200 authorities.

The B. C. Court of Appeal wondered if its “sequel” would even be read by anyone but the parties.

The costs were staggering — legal fees in excess of $3 million.

Sadly, this dispute was over the transaction between Tompkins Ranching Ltd. and the Big Nine Trust that closed on Feb. 13, 2004 for $889,000.

On Harold’s side, Vancouver lawyer Richard DeFilippi said he could not comment because there remained issues before the court.

For Eugene, Vancouver lawyer John Dives said his client’s feelings about the pyrrhic proceedings could be summed up succinctly:

“Intense frustration.”