The cloistered Catholic brotherhood that was found to be free of liability in the sexual abuse of a native man in a B.C. residential school is back in court - this time suing the lawyers that won the case.The Order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, whose members take a vow of poverty, is challenging $7.3-million in legal bills stretching over more than four years, saying its lawyers charged "excessive, unreasonable" fees that violated its retainer agreement with the Vancouver firm of Dohm, Jaffer & Jeraj.
The firm represented the order over nearly a dozen years, providing advice about allegations of physical or sexual abuse against Oblate priests and brothers, according to the statement of defence.
As well, the law firm won a Supreme Court case that held the order was not indirectly responsible for the sexual abuse of a native man by a lay employee of the order.
In its statement of claim, the order takes aim at several practices by two of its lawyers, Mobina Jaffer and Azool Jaffer-Jeraj, including:
*Ms. Jaffer and Mr. Jeraj billing for more than 24 hours in a single day
*a bill for more than 22 hours in a single day by Ms. Jaffer for reviewing accounts
*3,700 hours of billed time by Mr. Jeraj, between Sept. 1, 2003 and March 22, 2005, which equates to more than 10 hours for every working day during that time.
*the hourly rate charged by each lawyer as "unreasonably and unjustifiably" high. Ms. Jaffer, who was called to the bar in 1978, charged $450;
*Mr. Jeraj charged $200 an hour, on or about the time he was called to the bar in 2000, the statement of claim says. Earlier, that document notes that Mr. Jeraj is Ms. Jaffer's son.
The order paid its legal tab through to 2004, but it has yet to pay $553,351 that was levied in March, 2005. With that bill unpaid, the law firm has claimed a lien over the order's legal files, although in its statement of defence, the firm notes it has turned over 100 boxes of files despite its legal claim over the paperwork.
The order is asking for aggravated and punitive damages, damages for breach of fiduciary duty, delivery of all its legal files, as well as court orders that will allow it to review all legal fees and disbursements.
The claims have yet to be proven in court, and in the statement of defence, the defendants deny virtually all of the allegations, save those that identify the firm and three of its lawyers.
The defendants say the order asked for a 30-per-cent reduction in fees in January, 2005.
The next month, the order paid its bills in full.
The statement of defence details a large volume of work performed for the plaintiffs, including 282 days of examinations for discovery of 210 physical or sexual abuse claimants, and the review of 11,434 documents related to 200 Oblate priests and brothers who were alleged to have committed sexual or physical abuse.
A lower-court judge had ruled that the order was responsible for the abuse of a child at the Christie Residential School on Meares Island.
The victim was repeatedly abused over several years by Martin Saxey, whom the order had hired as a baker and handyman.
The order did not know of the assaults, and Mr. Saxey, who died in 1986, was not assigned to work with children. .
The B.C. Court of Appeal overturned the lower court ruling, and in an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court sided with the appeal court ruling.
The case is to proceed to trial early next year.
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