The taxpayer and other lawyers employed in British Columbia by the Department of Justice sued the Department in the British Columbia Supreme Court alleging that they were entitled to be paid at the same rate as lawyers employed by the Department in Toronto. As "Mr. Loo is trying to establish by litigation that, for the services he has rendered to his employer, the law requires that he be paid more than he has been paid", it followed that the taxpayer was trying to establish a right to salary "owed" to him by his employer.