P.E.I. police officer wins costs against City of Summerside
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 | 8:52 PM AT
CBC News
Summerside's deputy police chief has won some of the court costs in his long legal battle against the city that employs him.
Griffin had to declare bankruptcy because of his court costs. (CBC) Dave Griffin had sued the city for malicious prosecution in connection with sexual-harassment charges that dated back to the late '90s and were dismissed.
In a decision Wednesday, the P.E.I. Supreme Court Appeal Division awarded Griffin costs.
In total, Griffin was awarded $296,275. Some of that will be paid by the City of Summerside, and Griffin will be able to claim back the remainder from the city and the estate of late police chief Georges Arsenault.
The Appeal Court heard in May that Griffin had to declare bankruptcy due to his legal costs, which he said at the time were about $300,000.
"It's been 14 hard, hard years for me — unconscionable would be the word," Griffin told CBC News on Wednesday. "I'm glad that it's finally come to an end, and everybody can move on."
Griffin said the whole thing should have been over within a year.
"Some of the powers to be wanted to carry this on and drag it on and for whatever reason, they're going to have to answer to somebody someday for that."
Mayor Basil Stewart said it takes a long time to get matters settled when they get tied up in the court system.
"When things get in the courts, you just can't close things quickly," he said. "It would be obstructing justice or sticking your fingers into the cookie jar when it's before the courts."
Malcolm Millar, Summerside's director of financial services, said staff members were looking into insurance coverage, adding it's not clear the city will be covered under its general liability.
Millar said the city is not surprised by the ruling.
"Awarding of costs are in the ball park of where we expected them to be," said Millar.
He said he has told lawyers to get this settled without undue delays. The city has already paid a good portion of its own legal bills, he said.
Court case 'out of scale'
Griffin's lawyer, Charles Campbell, said the case should not have gone on for as long as it did.
"All of this litigation … is preposterously out of scale to what was originally the issue," he said.
Campbell said the city's own costs exceed $1 million.
"If I were a resident of Summerside, I would be pretty concerned about this," he said.
"We offered to settle everything before the litigation started for $75,000. There was no offer from the city, so the litigation proceeded."
Campbell said this should be the end of the lengthy legal battle.
The city was denied leave to appeal the malicious prosecution finding by the Supreme Court of Canada in January. Campbell said Summerside taxpayers will ultimately end up paying the costs, and noted if the city had accepted a settlement agreement offered years ago, the cost would only be a fraction of what it is now.
Summerside Mayor Basil Stewart says it takes time to close matters when they're in the courts. The legal battle stems back to an incident in 1997, when a Summerside constable pulled his gun on a speeding motorist. Griffin refused an order from Arsenault to do an internal investigation, because he felt a criminal investigation was in order.
Griffin was eventually found guilty of insubordination in that incident, but while that case was underway the deputy chief was accused of sexual harassment. Those charges, made in 1998, were later dismissed. In 2006, the P.E.I. Supreme Court ruled Arsenault had "intentionally misused his office" to allow charges to go ahead.
When asked how the ordeal has affected operations at the Summerside police department and Griffin's relationship with city hall, Griffin replied that he gets along fine with his fellow police officers.
"That's the way it's got to be, business as usual," Griffin said. "City hall — that's another issue that I'm not going to speak about."
