TRE VOCE Bacal: March 26, 1993 116 pages Can-Dive wins partial victory in court action Office, Editorial 985-2131 CAR CARE A 20-page pull-out section to guide drivers on spring auto care 23 featu Display Advertising 980-0511 SENIORS HOUSING F Anna Marie D'Angelo ie looks at the housing crunch en the North Shore Classifieds 986-6222 NEWS photo Cindy Goodman TWO-YEAR-cld Zoltan Pardanyi is given a quick clip by Carmen Laslett of Ravz Hair Design. The North Vancouver salon held a cut-a-thon Sunday, March 21, to benefit the Vancouver Food Bank and the Elizabeth Fry Society, which pravides community programs and transitional housing for adults and youth who are in conflict with the law. NORTH VANCOUVER-based Can-Dive Services Ltd. has won a partial B.C. Court of Appeal: victory in its multi- million-dolar lawsuit to recover cost over-runs from its part-in the construction of an underwater natural gas pipeline to Vancouver Island. The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled that the project’s engincers cannot be removed from the suit. Can-Dive and Laurentian Pacific Insurance Co. launched the 37 million suit in 199! jn a dispute over cost over-runs in the project to design and build a gas pipeline from the B.C. mainland across Malaspina Straits to Van- couver Island. “We're very pleased. We don’t By Brent Mudry Contributing Writer know how they (the project’s engineers) were ever removed in the first place,’ said Can-Dive president Phil Nuytten. In Tuesdav’s appeal court deci- sion, Westcoast Energy Corp., its subsidiary Pacific Coast Energy Corp., and Intec Engineering Inc. were brought back into the Can-Dive suit. The companies had earlier won applications for removal from the court action, claiming that they were not responsible for any fi- nancial loss incurred by Can-Dive on the pipeline project. The suit. was set to go 10 trial last August, but was adjourned after. the companies were removed from the court action. Intec, a Houston-based engineering firm, was granted removal from the lawsuit in January 1992. Westcoast and Pacific Coast succeeded in being removed from to retrieve gas pipeline losses the lawsuit in June 1992, The 12-week trial was originally set last June to start Sept. 27 in B.C. Supreme Court. “It’s been a frustrating year — but we’re delighted that the suit is back on track,’ said Richard Twining, lawyer for Can-Dive, “We've been ready for trial since last August.”’ Appeal court judge Mr. Justice Allan McEachern noted that the issue of ‘‘duty-of-care’’(the re- sponsibility for Can-Dive losses) was too complex to be resolved and must be deferred to a trial judge this fall. Project contractors Morrison- Knudsen Co. and Northern Con- struction Co. (NCC) are also named as defendants in the suit. Can-Dive was subcontracted by NCC to assist in laying the pipeline and installing pipeline support structures, The North Vancouver company used two remotely operated vehi- cles fitted with robotic manipulator arms and video cam- eras to monitor pipeline installa- tions. International Hard Suits Inc., an offshoot of Can-Dive, par- ticipated in the pipeline work by supplying divers equipped with Newtsuit atmospheric diving suits.