Year after year, B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal handles some of the more interesting legal actions in the province’s justice system.
The tribunal adjudicates such things as airline ticket disputes, neighbour problems, fights over pets and strata battles, among other things.
Taylor Swift
One of the highest-profile disputes of the year was about Taylor Swift tickets.
Friends Jacquelyn Kambere and Kimara Young wound up before the tribunal after Young got a code allowing her to buy Swift tickets when they went on sale in 2023.
Kambere said the pair had agreed that if one secured tickets they would purchase four and split the cost so that both take their daughters to the show.
It didn’t work out that way. Kambere told the tribunal that Young did not hold up her end of the deal, and refused to transfer the tickets. Young denied the parties had any agreement.
The tribunal ordered Young to hand over the tickets.
Coldplay
A B.C. woman who claimed she thought she was on a date to a Coldplay concert in Vancouver was ordered to pay the man she went with $450.
Michael Stolfi claimed Alyssa Randles agreed to repay him $600 for the cost of tickets to the September 2023 concert and for associated travel expenses, tribunal member Mark Henderson said in a July 15 decision.
But Randles said she thought the concert was a date. She said Stolfi didn't ask her to share the cost of the night out until after the concert was over.
Henderson said Randles failed to prove the concert ticket was a gift.
“I find it was a loan and Ms. Randles must repay Mr. Stolfi $450 for the cost of her Coldplay ticket,” Henderson ruled.
Bus dispute
Two people who rented a bus for a church group trip were to get $3,000 back after vehicle issues and a rude driver, B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal ruled Nov. 22.
Michael Habib and Samuel Guindi chartered a bus from D.W. Cholin Inc., for a round trip from Vancouver to Kelowna in July 2023, according to tribunal member Peter Mennie's decision. Habib and Guindi paid $4,137 before the trip.
The pair told the tribunal the bus needed repairs in Hope which delayed their trip by over an hour. They also claimed the bus’s air conditioning was not working from Hope to Kelowna; the driver was "rude, aggressive, and made disparaging comments" about their religion in email exchanges; the bus broke down; and the company refused to return them to Vancouver. The two claimed a full refund.
Sex problems dismissed
A B.C. man who claimed $1 million in damages after a car accident interrupted his sex life had his case dismissed by the tribunal after it was discovered he had requested Viagra from a doctor a year before the incident.
According to the decision, handed down by the tribunal on Oct. 29, a man identified as J.U. missed work due to injuries from a 2021 motor vehicle accident.
ICBC paid him $1,794.07 in income replacement benefits. But the man claimed the insurance corporation failed to pay him benefits for the first 10 days after his accident. He claimed an additional $3,352.60.
J.U. also claimed his sex life was ruined by his accident-related injuries, a condition that entitled him to $1 million in permanent impairment compensation.
Tribunal member Sarah Orr said there was also a March 22, 2023, note in the psychologist’s clinical records indicating that J.U.’s doctor had prescribed medicine for sexual dysfunction.
She considered the case flaccid and dismissed it.
Strata french fries
A strata in Maple Ridge, B.C., was ordered to reimburse an owner $400 for fines it levied over hallway noise and a french fry found in an elevator.
BCFS Residential Rentals Ltd. (BCFS), which owns two lots in the strata, claimed the strata used CCTV recordings to enforce its bylaws and impose fines against a tenant contrary to the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and the Strata Property Act (SPA), tribunal vice-chair J. Garth Cambrey said in his Oct. 25 decision.
“I find that it was significantly unfair for the strata to rely on the video recordings because that use contravened the PIPA,” Cambrey said.
Basketball diaries
A B.C. man missed his shot at stopping kids from playing basketball in his neighbourhood.
The tribunal said the absence of basketball-caused damage meant the case could be dismissed.
Gilbert Stephen Milne and Ryan Vernon McGregor own homes in the same neighbourhood, tribunal member Peter Mennie said in a Sept. 18 decision. The decision didn't disclose the location of the neighbourhood.
McGregor set up a basketball net on his property in his backyard, but Milne — who lives across the street — told Mennie it is not allowed under the building scheme registered on McGregor’s property.
Milne asked for an order that McGregor remove the basketball net and asked for monetary damages for a flowerpot, hummingbird feeders and fence.
“He has not provided any photos of a basketball in his yard or receipts for replacement items that were allegedly destroyed,” Mennie said.
Buttocks
A B.C. woman who claimed emotional distress after her neighbour bared her buttocks to her through a window lost her $500 damages suit.
The Osoyoos resident filed a tribunal claim after a June 30, 2023 incident.
She and her neighbour live in a townhouse complex, tribunal member Maria Montgomery wrote.
The woman claimed her neighbour exposed her buttocks when in full view of her kitchen window with the intent of upsetting her and her spouse.
The woman provided a video file to the tribunal that showed a figure bending over and pulling down their pants.
The neighbour, however, said the figure in the video could not be her as she was working at the time.
Montgomery said the applicant had to prove her neighbour engaged in wrongful conduct and that conduct caused something more serious and prolonged than the usual annoyances, anxieties and fears that arise in society.
