Case information

Civil procedure — Pleadings — Summary judgment — Costs — Applicant commencing first action against landlord — Costs award against applicant — First chambers judge refusing to strike landlord’s statement of defence — Second chambers judge striking applicant’s statement of claim in second action against judges and against provincial Minister of Justice — Applicant appealing both orders — Court of Appeal dismissing both appeals by applicant — Whether ignorance of the law is an acceptable defence — Whether a denial of a fact in a pleading must have substance — Whether Alberta judges have authority to pervert the course of justice based on their own discretion — Whether ordering costs against an impecunious litigant is contrary to constitutional principle of the rule of law — Whether the Proceedings Against the Crown Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. P-25, was or was not engaged in this case — Whether the fact that party names may have been incorrect is fatal to an action — Alberta Rules of Court, Alta Reg. 124/2010, r. 3.68.

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The applicant, Barnabas Okeke, commenced an action against his landlord, the respondent Andrew Chen. In the course of the litigation, Mr. Okeke was ordered to pay $1,200 in costs. When Mr. Chen filed his defence, Mr. Okeke applied to strike the statement of defence and to obtain summary judgment against Mr. Chen. Mr. Okeke then filed a second claim against the judge who issued the costs order, the respondent Justice Miller of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, as well as against other respondents (the Associate Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, the Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, and the Minister of Justice of Alberta), centred mostly on the costs order against Mr. Okeke in his first action against Mr. Chen.

In the first action against Mr. Chen, the chambers judge refused to strike the statement of defence, dismissed Mr. Okeke’s application, and ordered that all applications and proceedings in the first action be stayed until Mr. Okeke provided security for costs, which had been previously ordered. In the second action against various Alberta judges and the Minister of Justice, a second chambers judge struck Mr. Okeke’s statement of claim as being frivolous and an abuse of process. In two separate judgments, a panel at the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed Mr. Okeke’s appeals from the two chambers judges’ orders.