Douglas Lake Cattle Company v. Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club, 2021 BCCA 99

Douglas Lake Cattle Company v. Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club, 2021 BCCA 99. application for leave to appeal ref’d (29 September 2021), File No. 39628 (S.C.C.). Evan Cooke and Ryan Parsons secured an order affirming a landowner’s right to restrict access across its private land and to two Crown lakes expanded by licensed private dams.

The litigation spanned more than seven years, and involved the interpretation of ancient survey documents, provincial land law from the 1800s, and a complex matrix of historical evidence.

Following the B.C. Court of Appeal’s decision, Cooke and Parsons successfully opposed their opponent’s Application for Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. In achieving victory, Cooke and Parsons obtained orders regarding the location of natural boundaries of two lakes through the interpretation of the relevant Crown Grant documents, affirmed that a historical trail was private and not public, and confirmed that private land flooded by water remains under the care and control of the owner of the lakebed.