Hotel owners knew worker was a risk before assault, suit alleges

The owners of a Macleod Trail hotel where a guest was raped by a staff member knew he was a sexual predator, a $2-million lawsuit claims.

A statement of claim, filed on behalf of the Edmonton woman, alleges Vishal and Munmun Comar, the two shareholders of Canada’s Best Value Inn, knew Jatinder Pal Singh Brar had acted sexually inappropriately in the past. The lawsuit goes on to claim the Comars failed to ensure her private information was secured when she logged on to the hotel’s internet service.

The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban imposed during Brar’s criminal prosecution, used the hotel’s internet access code when she checked in on Oct. 10, 2017, her claim states.

“A pop-up told her that her data was being viewed by another party,” the court document says.

“The plaintiff telephoned the hotel’s reception immediately to tell the hotel of the occurrence and asked if the access was secure through the hotel’s access code. The hotel’s person on reception advised the plaintiff definitively that access to the internet was secure.”

The following morning the woman found a text message on her phone purporting to come from her friend, Jay. Since she had not shared her number with anyone other than close friends and family, she believed it was a friend who was a local tattoo artist.

Believing she was communicating with her friend, through a series of exchanged texts the woman agreed to have “Jay” come over to her hotel room for a late-night visit.

She left her door unsecured and, in the early morning hours, Brar entered her room while she was asleep and sexually assaulted her.

“The plaintiff was terrified and fearful for her safety and allowed the unprotected intercourse to occur, so as not to put herself at greater risk,” her lawsuit says. “The fraudulent imposter who sexually assaulted the plaintiff was the hotel’s employee and night manager … Brar.”

Brar was convicted last year of sexually assaulting the woman and sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary. He is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit and his trial lawyer, Allan Fay, said he will be deported to his native India once he serves his sentence.

The lawsuit alleges “Brar had conducted himself previously with the hotel’s female guests in sexually inappropriate manners of which the hotel and the two directors, the defendants Vishal and Munmun, knew.”

A statement of defence disputing the unproven allegations of negligence has not been filed.