Civil forfeiture settlement relinquishing Vancouver condo was valid, court rules

Downtown Vancouver is seen from the city's west side in this file photo. (Shutterstock.com)

A couple’s agreement to forfeit a Vancouver condo to the provincial government has survived their attempt to invalidate it in court.

B.C.’s director of civil forfeiture sued Xiong Guang Chen and Jue Ming Chen – along with their son Stephen Hai Chen – in 2019, alleging that two properties the trio owned in Vancouver were “proceeds and instruments of unlawful activities.”

The younger Chen was convicted of drug trafficking in connection to a Kelowna RCMP investigation that began in 2014, according to a B.C. Supreme Court decision on the civil forfeiture matter published online last week.

Xiong Guang and Jue Ming entered a settlement agreement in the case in December 2024, agreeing to forfeit a two-bedroom condo in Kerrisdale and remove their son from the title to their home in East Vancouver. The settlement would allow them to continue living in the East Vancouver house, but prohibit them from re-adding their son to the title during their lifetimes.

The couple signed the settlement at a mediation session with a certified court interpreter present, but without their own legal counsel in the room, according to Justice Lindsay R. LeBlanc’s decision.

The Chens then refused to sign a consent order disposing of the director’s initial lawsuit, arguing instead that the settlement agreement was “unconscionable” because “they could not protect their interests due to the language barrier and lack of independent legal advice” during the mediation.

LeBlanc rejected this position, noting that the court advised the Chens of their right to seek independent legal advice throughout the mediation process and had provided them with a certified translator.

The couple raised no concerns about the interpreter on the day of the mediation, and provided no evidence that they had requested independent legal advice and been denied it.

“I do not find that there was any inequity of bargaining position,” the decision reads. “The mediation was requested by X. Chen and J. Chen and the director took appropriate steps to ensure that X. Chen and J. Chen would not be disadvantaged by hiring, at the director’s cost, a translator that was available to X. Chen and J. Chen throughout the day. X. Chen and J. Chen were advised throughout the process that they could obtain independent legal advice.”

The Kerrisdale condo – located in a building on the corner of West Boulevard and West 42nd Avenue – had a 2025 assessed value of $1,167,000, according to BC Assessment.

The settlement agreement indicates the director of civil forfeiture will have “sole conduct” of the sale of that property.

The Chens’ family home on East 5th Avenue near Nanaimo Street was assessed at $2,155,000 for 2025.