Richmond private school awarded $300,000 in 'costs' for long legal process

A private school in Richmond has been awarded more than $300,000 in special costs after a judge concluded the school had been dragged through a three-and-a-half-year legal process unnecessarily.

In his judgment in favour of Chao Yin Canada Group, which owns Chao Yin International School, the judge concluded the defendants, Xenova Property Development and Xiao Bo Li, also known as Polly Li, increased the cost of litigation with delays, adjournments and by creating extra work for Chao Yin.

The almost $308,000 Xenova and Li will have to pay is 100 per cent of what Chao Yin asked for.

The lawyer representing Chao Yin, Paul Kressock, said it’s “rare” to have 100 per cent of costs awarded; normally, this would be between 80 and 90 per cent.

The special costs are on top of the $154,000 Xenova and Li were ordered to repay Chao Yin in September 2021.

Li had helped the school’s owner, Yi Shuai (Billy) Zhang look for a property and an architect to build his school, but the judge dismissed her claim that she was hired as a project manager.

The main dispute in the 2021 lawsuit was over $154,000 that Li had told Zhang was urgently needed by the Canadian government or the project would be halted.

The judge concluded the defendants told Zhang this story with the intention to fraudulently misappropriate that money.

Li declared bankruptcy shortly after the first judgment in 2021, and she remains in undischarged bankruptcy.

A civil claim by Li’s bankruptcy trustee, however, has been filed to try to recover money that was allegedly moved to Li’s son and a business partner before she declared bankruptcy.

The trustee, Crowe Mackay & Company, has filed a suit against Li’s business partner Danny Ma and her son, to recover funds they claim Li transferred to a house bought in her son, Clinton Li’s, name. This is to recover the money for Li’s creditors, including Chao Yin.

The sale of a Vancouver duplex, developed by Li and Ma, netted them $1.7 million. But on June 10, 2021 just days before the Chao Yin trial was set to begin – after being postponed several times – Li and Ma moved $1.4 million out of their joint account, according to the civil claim by Crowe Mackay.

Li’s portion of the sale was about $857,000, 50 per cent of the net sale proceeds, the lawsuit claims.

Another house was allegedly bought in Li’s son’s name using these proceeds.

The defendants claim Li wasn’t the beneficial owner of the original property on West 6th Avenue, rather, she put her name on the title and the mortgage in order for her and Ma to get small business loans for their property development company, Xenova.

The defendants also claim the proceeds from the sale were never in a joint account, rather it was always solely in Ma’s account.

Furthermore, the mortgage payments came from Ma’s bank account, according to the counter claim, and Li didn’t contribute to the construction costs of the duplex.