A builder has been awarded $45,000 in damages for defamation after a North Vancouver couple made remarks to the Better Business Bureau, the Canadian Home Builders Association and the RCMP accusing him of fraud.
The judgment was handed down in B.C. Supreme Court Jan. 19 by Justice Grant Burnyeat following a civil trial in 2016.
The builder, Jason Wood, sued Pharid Nurdin Jaffer and Amy Louise Jaffer after they distributed written comments critical of his work in building a new house for them in North Vancouver in 2012.
In his decision, Burnyeat found there was no evidence to support their allegations and that making the comments had damaged Wood’s professional reputation.
“What was stated affects not only the opinion of potential clients but also workers and sub-contractors who would not be aware that the allegations including fraud and receipt of proceeds of crime were entirely without merit,” wrote Burnyeat.
Burnyeat added that “the considerable power of the RCMP was called into play and Mr. Wood was subjected to the stress and stigma of a criminal investigation.” Police concluded that investigation with no charges.
In his written judgment, the judge concluded part of the reason the couple made the statements about Wood was to get the builder to lower his fees.
The Jaffers were ordered to pay damages of $35,000. In addition, the judge awarded Wood a further $10,000 in punitive damages.
The judge also awarded the couple $3,334 for problems related to the construction, while dismissing a number of other claims about the building project.
The court case sprang from an acrimonious dispute that developed between the couple and the builder during construction of a new house for them on a property in Pemberton Heights.
According to court documents, Wood prepared an estimate of what it would cost to build the house the couple had architectural designs for but warned “the cost of constructing a house could only be estimated and not guaranteed.”
A contract was signed in September 2011 with a building schedule anticipated to take seven to nine months and wrap up by the end of 2012.
But changes to the design of the house and an increase in square footage began pushing the budget up past $900,000 from an original estimate of $700,000.
By July 2012, following a tense meeting in which Wood said he was “insulted, ridiculed and berated,” according to court documents, the contract was terminated and the couple hired another company, Blackfish Homes, to finish the construction.
In November 2012 the couple wrote a seven-page document accusing Wood of “fraud” and benefiting from the “proceeds of crime” which they sent to the builders association, the RCMP and the Better Business Bureau. Wood’s lawyer demanded that the couple retract their comments, but the Jaffers refused.
In handing down his decision against the couple, Burnyeat said the comments couldn’t be considered fair comment, as no public interest was at stake and the statements were assertions of fact rather than opinion.
“The allegations of criminal fraud . . . went beyond what was reasonably necessary or appropriate for the (couple) to assert their complaints,” wrote the judge.
He added the “dominant motive for the publication of the words was actual or expressed malice.”
Burnyeat wrote it was clear the statements would lower Wood’s reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person. He added that an apology issued in April 2016 by the couple was “insincere” and “too little too late.”
