Appeal court grapples with whether to allow class-action against SROs
If a class-action lawsuit is allowed to proceed against members of the Sahota family, owners of several Downtown Eastside single-occupancy residence hotels, it could open the “floodgates” by allowing tenants to pursue landlords in B.C. Supreme Court, a lawyer representing the Sahotas said in court Thursday.
Legal observers say if the proposed class-action lawsuit, believed to be the first of its kind in B.C., is certified, it could have major implications for groups of tenants trying to resolve grievances against landlords.
The legal action was started last summer by Jack Gates, a resident of the Regent Hotel, an SRO in the Downtown Eastside described this month by city officials as one of the worst buildings of its kind in Vancouver. Members of Vancouver’s Sahota family and their companies, who own the Regent and other SRO buildings as part of a $130-million real estate empire, are named as defendants.
The lawsuit, filed in August 2016, seeks punitive and aggravated damages, an injunction ordering repair work on the building, and an order “appointing, in place of the Sahotas, a suitable property management company” to run the building, which, the lawsuit alleges, has “serious health and safety issues.”
This is one pirate that will have to walk the plank.
Pirate Joe’s, a local re-seller of Trader Joe’s goods in Kitsilano, has taken down its pirate mast and appears to have shut its doors.
“If you just so happen to be a millionaire and have $50,000 available to donate to us to stand up to Trader Joe’s in Federal Court, please call,” read a post shared Wednesday on Facebook by Pirate Joe’s owner Mike Hallatt. “Otherwise, please head in today to grab your TJ’s loot, because we will likely be closing for good at the end of the day today.”
The rogue retailer — dubbed “Irate Joe’s” in recent weeks — has been selling products from American retailer Trader Joe’s since 2012, making regular trips to Seattle, Wash., to buy a variety of products that are later re-sold to Vancouverites not keen to make the drive themselves.
The Kitsilano shop has touted itself as being “unaffiliated, unauthorized, unafraid” and was first sued by Trader Joe’s in 2013 for alleged trademark infringement. Hallatt won that suit but the American retailer returned with a second suit.
Hallatt launched a crowdfunding campaign to cover legal fees. He hoped to raise $50,000 by the end of June. As of June 8, just $5,765 had been raised by 117 people.
“Thank you to everyone who has ever supported us,” read Hallatt’s post. “We are sad it had to come to this, but hey, at least we had some fun while we were at it right?!”
A call to the shop Thursday reached an answering machine that said the shop offered “mostly costumes. No groceries. None of that. No Trader Joe’s stuff at all. Are you kidding?”