They won in court, but 2 families still face 'frustrating' legal fight with Vancouver movers

Sean Giesbrecht and Gillian Epp have had a busy few months in court. The two competitive poker players and their Vancouver moving company now owe $41,000, thanks to two recent small claims rulings.

They're appealing one of those decisions, alleging the judge who chewed them out for "unconscionable and extortionate business practices" was biased against them. Meanwhile, a judicial officer in Kelowna resorted to arrest warrants to get Giesbrecht and Epp in court to discuss payment of their debt.

For those waiting on court-ordered payments from the moving company, Galaxy Mobile Storage, it's been an aggravating process.

"In a word, [it's] frustrating," said Kelowna lawyer Matt Canzer.

His wife's antique baby grand piano was badly damaged during a move from Vancouver to Kelowna, and the insurance she'd paid for it turned out to be nonexistent.

The couple took Giesbrecht and Epp to small claims court, and in September, a judge ordered Galaxy to pay $16,000 for repairs to the piano. Since then, the company has also been ordered to pay $25,000 for another botched move.

To date, none of that cash has materialized, but Canzer and his wife, Leslie Grenier, are determined to see this through to the end. 

"We're going to keep pursuing it until we get our money," Canzer said.

After Giesbrecht and Epp failed to appear in court on Jan. 30 for a hearing in Kelowna about the outstanding $16,000 for the piano, a judicial justice signed off on warrants for their arrest. 

Epp and Giesbrecht made an appearance earlier this month to have the warrants cancelled, and a new hearing has been scheduled for April.

Company acted in 'bad faith'

Epp and Giesbrecht, a.k.a. Sean Carfrae, aren't commenting on their current legal troubles.

But in a brief telephone conversation with CBC, Giesbrecht claimed the arrest warrants were the result of a misunderstanding, and promised Canzer and Grenier will receive their money by spring. He said he only missed the Jan. 30 hearing because notice was served on the wrong person.

Canzer disputes that. He says notice was served on Galaxy's business address and the email address Giesbrecht used in their correspondence about the move.

Meanwhile, in documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court last month, Giesbrecht lays out a long list of woes caused by Galaxy's recent losses in court.

It's all part of an appeal of a separate $25,000 judgment handed down in December, when a provincial court judge found that Galaxy held a West Vancouver family's property hostage for eight months, demanding nearly $3,000 to release it.

When the Lawlors finally got their belongings back, several pieces of furniture and a pair of valuable paintings had been damaged or destroyed, and their electronics were missing, according to court documents

Judge Joanne Challenger wrote that Giesbrecht, Galaxy and Epp, "have engaged in unconscionable and extortionate business practices by detaining the claimant's possessions in bad faith for the purpose of extracting excessive compensation. I find they destroyed and damaged the claimant's property intentionally."

She held both Giesbrecht and Epp personally liable for the damage.

But Giesbrecht maintains in an appeal that he didn't get a fair hearing.

"There is a reasonable appearance of bias. The judge repeatedly slanders Sean's character," he wrote in an application filed on Jan. 22.

"The judgment lacked proof [of] damages that were awarded."

He writes that a CBC story about the judgment has caused "massive business hardships" for his moving company.

"Booked customers cancelled their moves and storage jobs. [Prospective] and pending bookings did not complete. Negative reviews were written about the company by viewers and readers of the CBC story," the application says.

"No new clients or business, no new jobs. No jobs have been booked since the release of the story."

Missed court hearings

If the appeal has any hope of moving ahead, Giesbrecht and Epp will have to deposit the full $25,000 owing with B.C. Supreme Court, as required by the Small Claims Act.

The Lawlors declined to comment, but documents they've filed in response to the appeal betray a sense of frustration with the process.

"The debtors have previously missed court sessions, pre-trial conferences and [are] extremely difficult to serve documents on. The debtors have used a Money Mart address in Vancouver as their corporate registry and personal address. They have now moved to a new post office box as their business address and personal address," the Lawlors write in an application filed in court.

Giesbrecht and Epp are scheduled to make their next court appearance in that case on Feb. 26.

Legal trouble is nothing new for Galaxy. The moving company has been the subject of numerous small claims over the years, as well as one high-profile lawsuit.

Two years ago, Galaxy agreed to pay more than $187,000 to the Vancouver Canucks for breaching a sponsorship agreement with the team. According to a Canucks spokesperson, Galaxy has yet to make a single payment on the agreed amount.