Yarmouth processor to pay part of feds’ costs over unlicensed lobster purchase
A Yarmouth-area processor that bought lobster caught without a commercial licence will have to pay part of the federal government’s legal costs.
A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has ordered Rockville Carriers Ltd. to pay the federal government thousands of dollars toward the legal costs it accrued defending a failed lawsuit by the company.
The lawsuit and recent costs ruling stems from Nov. 15, 2019, when Rockville Carriers bought 11,500 pounds of lobster from Kylie & Boys Fisheries Ltd., owned by David Pictou.
Later that day, Department of Fisheries and Oceans officers arrived at the Town Point facility and notified owner Wentworth Porter that Kylie & Boys had neither a valid commercial fishing licence nor a buyer’s licence.
A subsequent search of the facility resulted in the officers seizing 4,400 pounds of lobster and releasing them from a nearby federal government wharf. What happened to the other 7,100 pounds of lobster is not discussed in the court filings.
No charges were laid against either Rockville Carriers or Kylie & Boys.
Rockville Carriers then sued the federal government over the seizure and release of the lobster, demanding $70,915 for the sales value of the lobster plus interest.
Rockville argued that it had been given no notice before purchasing the lobster that they were caught without a licence and that the fisheries officers acted “negligently” in releasing them.
Justice Peter Rosinski found the officers “had ample reasonable grounds to believe ‘at the time of seizure’ that the lobsters were unlawfully in the custody of Rockville, and (the officers) acted in good faith throughout.”
Having failed in its suit, Rockville was ordered to pay a portion of the federal government’s legal costs.
The feds claimed costs of $95,602 defending against the suit and sought to have Rockville pay $45,000 of that. Rockville argued that it should pay $9,250.
In a decision released Monday, Rosinski ruled Rockville should pay the feds $11,385.
