Two Vancouver police officers involved in the beating of an East Side man in January “deny each and every allegation” set out in a lawsuit launched against them by the victim.

Constables Nicholas Florkow and Bryan London say in a statement of defence document filed in B.C. Supreme Court that use of force against Yao Wei Wu was “legally justified in the circumstances.”

At no time, the statement continued, did the officers’ use of force consist of dragging Wu from his home, repeatedly beating him or keeping him in handcuffs for a lengthy period of time, or at all.

“The police defendants were acting in good faith in the lawful performance of their municipal police duties and that no direct action for damages lies against [them],” the statement said.

The document was filed in defence of a lawsuit launched by Wu and his wife in March against Florkow and London. The City of Vancouver and Corporation of Delta, whose police force is investigating the beating, are also named in the suit.

The court documents from both sides are allegations. No trial date has been set to hear the case.

The statement of claim in the suit alleges the officers unlawfully forced their way into Wu’s house Jan. 21 in the 6200-block Lanark Street without consent.

The officers grabbed him, dragged him outside and assaulted and repeatedly beat him “without provocation or justification, thereby causing him to sustain serious and disabling physical and psychiatric injuries,” the claim said.

Wu suffered bruises, contusions, internal injuries, head injuries, fractured facial bones, loss of vision and psychological trauma, the claim added.

On the night of the incident, the officers in question responded to a domestic assault call at the house at around 2:20 a.m. The officers were told the caller was a woman with a baby and that she was being assaulted by her husband, according to Police Chief Jim Chu’s statement the day after the incident.

Chu said the officers, who were in plain clothes, arrived at the right address but knocked on the wrong door. The call originated from the Wu home’s basement suite, where a man was later arrested in connection with the domestic call.

In the VPD’s initial media release on the incident, the police department said Wu resisted arrest and was injured as a result. The VPD later said that wasn’t the case and Chu apologized to the Wu family.

mhowell@vancourier.com