The bungled sale of a $2.89 million Richmond, B.C., home under a Chinese-language contract was the subject of a recent B.C. Supreme Court decision, with the court ruling the one-page handwritten document outlining the deal is legally binding.

Justice Steven Wilson’s Monday ruling brings an apparent end to a nearly seven-year legal tango between two acquaintances who first met in dance class — and then several more times in a courtroom.

Wilson’s decision found plaintiff and would-be seller Hong Yang and her husband were entitled to damages after buyer Xue Li failed to pay an $800,000 deposit instalment agreed upon in what the parties called a “Chinese contract.”

While another justice refused to decide the case on a summary basis in 2022, Monday’s ruling finds that despite different translations, customs and interpretations, Chinese-language contracts are enforceable in British Columbia — in this case, to the tune of nearly half a million dollars.

“I find that the Chinese contract was a valid and binding contract, and that the plaintiffs were ready, willing and able to complete at the closing date,” Wilson wrote.

“The plaintiffs were entitled to accept the defendant’s breach, which they did, and are entitled to damages.”