Bosma’s family has filed $14-million lawsuit against killers
Relatives cite ‘severe emotional and mental distress’ resulting from the 32-year-old father’s murder
After finding justice in criminal court, Tim Bosma’s family is now hoping for the same in civil court as they pursue a lawsuit against the Ancaster dad’s killers.
The $14-million suit was filed quietly in London, Ont., Superior Court last May — more than a year before Dellen Millard and Mark Smich would be found guilty of first-degree murder in the 32-year-old’s death.
Bosma’s parents, Hank and Mary, his widow, Sharlene, and their daughter (who is listed as “Jane Doe” to protect her privacy), are the listed plaintiffs, claiming damages under the Family Law Act for both financial and emotional losses.
“I can tell you, for Sharlene and for Tim’s parents, it has never been about recovering money,” London-based civil lawyer Jennifer Chapman told the Spectator on Friday.
“It’s another venue where they can get justice for Tim, and have someone say, ‘You are responsible for taking this man’s life, and for the pain and suffering that this family now experiences.’ ”
Bosma was killed May 6, 2013, after taking Millard and Smich for a test drive of the pickup truck he was selling online. He was shot in his truck, his body then burned in an animal incinerator outside an air hangar owned by Millard at the Region of Waterloo airport.
His family “continues to suffer from severe emotional and mental distress as a result of the brutal and callous act,” the May 5, 2015, statement of claim reads.
“The disappearance and death of Timothy Bosma and the resulting damages claimed herein . . . were caused solely as a result of the horrendous, malicious, arbitrary and reprehensible misconduct of one or a combination of more than one of the defendants.”
Despite the criminal conviction, the allegations in the lawsuit have not yet been tested in civil court.
In addition to the two convicted murderers, Millard’s mother, Madeleine Burns, and his girlfriend, Christina Noudga — who is charged with being an accessory after the fact to the murder — are listed as defendants.
The statement of claim specifically notes that the transfer of properties from Millard to his mother in the days after his arrest in May 2013 was “a fraudulent conveyance aimed at protecting his assets from creditors and as such, unlawful.”
Much has been made of Millard’s fortune. During the murder trial, the Crown argued that he is not as wealthy as had been portrayed by the media, and that he had been struggling with debts in the months leading up to Bosma’s murder.
But his defence lawyers painted a picture of a young aviation magnate flush with cash and properties — including his Etobicoke home, a Toronto multiplex, a Waterloo-area farm and the air hangar.
In a statement of defence filed Nov. 6, Millard argues the sum of money sought by the Bosmas “marks vengefulness . . . without foundation” and calls for the action to be dismissed.
“From my own life experiences, I have felt the unimaginable grief and sorrow that stems from losing immediate family,” he writes. “The Bosma clan have been victims of a senseless loss, a loss of one of their family.”
He adds in his defence — which would have been filed before he stood trial and was convicted — that the Bosmas have been “re-victimized by a flawed police investigation. They are being wrongly incited to hate, and to blame me for their loss. However, I am not to blame.”
According to documents, Millard’s assets have been frozen and have been controlled by a court-ordered receiver, Zeifman Partners Inc., since Nov. 13, 2015.
But people are allowed to liquidate assets to pay for lawyers, Chapman says.
No statement of defence has been filed for Smich, Burns or Noudga.
Less is known about Smich’s finan- cial circumstances, but Chapman stresses again that it is not about going after he who has more cash.
“It’s not about the Bosmas getting some payday. It’s about having that judgment. And whether (the funds) ever actualize or not is at the bottom of their priority list.”
Millard and Smich are now serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Bosma — and are both appealing their convictions.
Chapman said those appeals will not necessarily delay the civil action, though it does prevent them from being able to see the investigation documentation.
The two courts function independently of one another. She explains that the action was filed in May of last year — instead of waiting for a conviction — because of an “over abundance of caution” around a twoyear limitation period.
“Any time you start a civil action you have a two-year limitation period from the date that you knew, or ought to have known, the elements of your cause of action,” she said.
From there, Chapman says the average civil action in Ontario takes between four and six years to move through the courts.
Bosma and Smich will also face another criminal trial next year for the first-degree murder of Toronto woman Laura Babcock, who disappeared in July 2012.
And Millard alone is charged with the first-degree murder of his father, Wayne, whose November 2012 shooting death was originally ruled a suicide.