B.C. court rejects $12M oral contract for massive ranch sale gone sour
The $63M sale of 16 B.C. ranches has taken a legal U-turn, with an intermediary from Vancouver Island seeing his $12M fee evaporate on appeal
Stefan Labbé Stefan Labbé
Jan 7, 2026 3:00 PM
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A trio of cows peer through a feeder fence at a large cattle operation in Kamloops, B.C.Peter Olsen Photography / Moment / Getty Images
The B.C. Court of Appeal has overturned a $12-million judgment involving a high-stakes ranching acquisition, ruling that a “meeting of the minds” never actually occurred between a Vancouver Island businessman and out-of-province buyers who called on him for help.
The ruling, handed down Jan. 6, 2026, overturns a 2025 Supreme Court decision that found David Dutcyvich and his company, 3L Developments Inc., had entered into an oral agreement to introduce a buyer to the Blue Goose Cattle Company, which holds more than 18,200 hectares spanning 21 locations across the interior of the province.
Dutcyvich had initially been offered a fee of half the money saved if he could strike a deal below the initial offering price of $100 million.
Over two years, the 81-year-old cattle rancher and logging company owner visited several farms—sometimes by helicopter—to count cattle, review payrolls, and ensure all the land-base and equipment was as described by the seller.
He ultimately found cattle numbers had been grossly overestimated, payrolls bloated with the ranch manager’s relatives, and equipment moved around before he could count what was there, according to the initial ruling. Dutcyvich also learned some of the leased land wasn’t going to get renewed because it was being returned to First Nations.
He recommended the initial buyers, Alberta-headquartered LBJ Capital Inc., pay no more than $76 million.
'Dodgy' buyers and deals by helicopter
The relationship between Blue Goose and LBJ soon started to break down, with the sellers describing the Albertan company as “untrustworthy” and “dodgy.”
That's when Darrel Monette and Monette Farms—a large corporation with ranch and agricultural holdings in Saskatchewan and the United States—engaged with Dutcyvich to help him buy the ranch lands.
In the spring of 2021, Monnette Farms signed a term sheet to buy the shares in the B.C. ranches, including Lambery Creek Organic Meats, a processing facility in North Vancouver.
At the same time Monette moved to purchase the B.C. ranches, it was quietly courting a deal to sell off a majority of its shares to LBJ, the initial Albertan buyer.
On May 6, 2021, Dutcyvich and Monette met at the Kamloops Coast Hotel, toured nearby ranches by helicopter and in a brief conversation, Dutcyvich told the court Monette confirmed he would pay the $12 million when the deal was closed.
Monette said the conversation never happened, and in court, he attempted to minimize the man’s role in the deal, wrote the trial judge.
That was the last time they would speak in person, according to submissions.
In court, Monette testified Dutcyvich and 3L Developments had done little valuable work to earn $12 million.
3L’s CEO, meanwhile, said he had spent hundreds of hours appraising the ranching business, a project he described as “massive.”
The trial judge found Dutcyvich to be a more credible witness, and said oral contracts can be enforceable under the law so long as they are clear.
The judge dismissed the Monette Farms’ counterclaim and ruled Dutcyvich and his company were entitled to $12 million.
The B.C. ranch lands were eventually sold for $63 million. Following the initial ruling, David Kemp, general counsel for Monette Farms, told BIV the deal to sell company shares to LBJ ultimately fell through within months of signing the term sheet. At the time, Kemp said the company remained 100 per cent owned by Darrel Monette.
Conflicting emails show buyer's doubt over $12-million fee
Summarizing the trial judge’s position, the appeals court wrote Monette’s evidence lacked credibility, flowing, in part, from his “duplicitous behaviour and statements” in concealing his initial role as a “front” for LBJ.
In the latest Court of Appeal decision, a panel of three judges unanimously agreed that while there was certainty that Dutcyvich was to provide services in the sale of the ranches, both sides had not agreed on the fee.
“The trial judge made a series of findings of fact, based on her assessment of the credibility of the witnesses’ evidence about the parties’ dealings,” wrote the appellate judges. “That evidence was, more often than not, conflicting.”
The appellate court found the trial judge's assessment of the credibility of Dutcyvich and Monette was “amply justified.” And while they also agreed that an oral contract can be enforceable, the terms of that contract “must be sufficiently certain and agreed to by the parties,” the ruling states.
The decision hinged on a series of March 2021 emails in which Monette expressed surprise at the $12-million fee LBJ had initially agreed to pay Dutcyvich.
“In my view, the evidence does not demonstrate a meeting of the minds on a fee of $12 million from the perspective of an objective reasonable bystander,” wrote B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Heather MacNaughton for the panel.
Intermediary sees value of work dropped to $2.7 million
MacNaughton and her fellow judges found no errors in the trial judge’s finding that the good will and trust Dutcyvich had built with the sellers was instrumental in the sale to Monette.
But in determining what was owed for that work, the trial judge was found to have made a “palpable and overriding error” when she focused on the cost of the service, rather than its value.
They awarded Dutcyvich an industry-standard introduction fee, plus $1 million for the work he performed, for a total of $2.7 million. The latest ruling drops the court approved award by more than 77 per cent.
Dutcyvich’s lawyers attempted to introduce fresh evidence—including a more recent appraisal of the sold ranch assets and a letter from Dutcyvich’s doctor noting his inability to participate in another trial.
The appeals court rejected that attempt, stating evidence about the value of assets bought two years after the purchase closed is not relevant to assessing the contractual terms.
Dutcyvich's current health was also deemed irrelevant as the court found the case should not be sent back to trial.
B.C. court slashes $12M fee in massive ranch deal to $2.7M - Business in Vancouver https://share.google/L9LRK6GRrO8GdLDhm