These two B.C. lawyers have been fighting each other in court for 23 years

Two B.C. lawyers involved in a 23-year battle over the closure of their partnership and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of "secret profits" were back in a courtroom again last week in a case the presiding judge described as "Dickensian in scope."

The three-judge panel at the British Columbia Court of Appeal allowed the appeal in part, ruling that a $150,000 punitive damage award be reduced to $50,000 along with several other smaller recalculations.

The $476,258 that John Michael Hutchison owes Donald Dale McKnight remains the same.

According to a Jan. 27 B.C Court of Appeal decision, the case dates back to 1999 when Hutchison and McKnight were in partnership together.

McKnight alleged that Hutchison had secretly kept more than $850,000 of the partnership's money and that his business partner was "morally reprehensible" and acted with "callous disregard."

The two took the dispute into the courtroom for what became an almost never-ending series of litigation.

"The litigation arising from the dissolution of the firm has been Dickensian in scope," Justice Richard Goepel said in the decision. "It has sparked two actions, three trials, three appeals and numerous applications."

According to the decision, the two have predominantly represented themselves throughout the court proceedings that have involved 22 written judgments along with two registrar’s reports and a special referee’s report.

The two lawyers battled it out in court over the amount of money owed and eventually, a judge ruled on $476,258.

But the debacle didn't end there with more court proceedings disputing various other amounts of money from storage expenses to accounting fees, along with punitive damages.

With almost every court decision, appeals followed and more time in the courtroom.

The decision says the two lawyers have spent more than 100 days in court arguing about the case.

Ultimately, the courts decided Hutchison pay the partnership $476,258 along with $150,000 in punitive damages.

But Justice Goepel overruled this in the recent Appeal Court decision, dropping the punitive damages to $50,000.

Prejudgment interest is also added to the majority of the figures which is dated back to 1999.

As the case dates back nearly a quarter of a century it would be surprising if the lawyers didn't face off against each other in a courtroom again.

And judging from the Justice's comments it seems likely they'll be back.

"If either party takes issue with the accounting, they are at liberty to file written submissions within two weeks of the release of these reasons," Justice Goepel said in the decision adding. "Such submissions should be limited to ten pages in length."

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