B.C.’s Court of Appeal has turned down an attempt to appeal an order of the B.C. Securities Commission concerning a case that has dragged on for about nine years.

The appellant, Art Smolensky, sought leave to appeal orders made on Jan. 16 by the BCSC; and, if leave was granted, for an order from the court that the proceedings before the commission be stayed pending the hearing of the appeal.

The court declined to grant leave, with Justice Catherine Anne Ryan saying in her decision: “I am of the view that given the delays that have already taken place in this case and the inadequacy of the record, it would not be in the interests of justice that leave be given to appeal the rulings of the commission at this stage of the proceedings.”

The case relates to a notice of hearing that was issued by the commission back in September 2002 concerning alleged conduct that was the subject of disciplinary hearings initiated by the Vancouver Stock Exchange in March 2000. In April 2001, that case was settled. But the BCSC began its own investigation after that.

Before a date for the commission hearing was obtained, Smolensky petitioned the Supreme Court for relief under the Judicial Review Procedure Act. The court dismissed the petition in July 2003. He appealed that decision, which was also dismissed.

Then, in November 2005, the commission heard an application from Smolensky to dismiss or stay the hearing, arguing that the hearing was barred by the limitation period set out in the Securities Act; and that it should be stayed as an abuse of process for a number of reasons, including the fact that he had already been penalized by the VSE.

The BCSC ruled against him earlier this year, and he sought leave to appeal that decision in court alleging numerous errors to have been committed by the commission.