TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Mexico-focused precious metals miner First Majestic Silver on Monday said it had applied to the British Columbia (BC) Court of Appeal for an order dismissing the appeal by former employee Hector Davila Santos and Minerales y Minas Mexicana (MMM) of the April 24 trial judgment in favour of First Majestic.

The Supreme Court of BC ruled in favour of First Majestic after lengthy litigation against Santos and Minera Arroyo Del Agua, which subsequently became MMM, and awarded it $93.84-million.

In November 2007, First Majestic and its subsidiary First Silver Reserve (FSR) started an action against Davila, the previous director, president and CEO of FSR, alleging, among other things, that while Davila held the company positions, he violated his fiduciary duty to FSR and that subsequently, through Minera Arroyo, he acquired the Bolanos mine from Grupo Mexico for his own personal interest.

FSR became a wholly owned subsidiary of First Majestic in September 2006.

Justice Myers concluded that the Bolanos opportunity belonged to FSR and that Davila did in fact breach his fiduciary duty by acquiring the mine.

Santos and MMM appealed the judgment.

First Majestic in June received C$14.85-million as partial payment of the judgment.

On June 27, the BC Court of Appeal ordered Davila and MMM to post security or provide a letter of credit in the amount of $79-million by September 25, which they failed to do and, as a result, under the terms of the June 27 ruling, First Majestic and FSR had applied to dismiss the appeal.

Further, the Supreme Court has granted orders restricting any transfer or encumbrance of the Bolanos mine by Davila or MMM and limiting mining at the mine. The orders also required that Davila and MMM preserve net cash flow from the Bolaos mine in a holding account and periodically provide to the company certain information regarding the Bolanos mine and the holding account.