Bryony House files lawsuit defence, says lottery operators 'incompetent'

Bryony House has filed its defence in a lawsuit related to the ill-fated Dare to Dream Home Lottery fundraiser, saying the company that operated the lottery was "incompetent."

The women's shelter lent its name to the lottery, which offered a luxury home as its top prize.

Ticket sales for the lottery were far lower than projected, and while it raised $2.5 million, Bryony House said it failed to bring in any money for the charity and its planned expansion was stalled.

Then, the company that operated the lottery — ALPC Housing Solutions — decided to sue the shelter, accusing it of failing to pay $374,905.50 in management fees that ALPC Housing Solutions said was owed under a contract signed with Bryony House.

In its defence, filed last week in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Bryony House said ALPC performed its obligations and services "incompetently and deficiently." The shelter is asking the court to dismiss ALPC's claims with costs.

"ALPC abdicated responsibility for marketing, financing and managing the lottery on many occasions," said the statement.

"As a result, Bryony House was required to take on tasks for which the parties had agreed ALPC would be responsible."

'Failure to perform its services'

The statement of defence from Bryony House said ALPC agreed to be responsible for all those aspects of the lottery.

ALPC Housing Solutions' marketing strategy was "deficient" and the company "did not adequately or effectively promote the lottery, with the result that ticket sales were much lower than anticipated," the statement said.

Bryony House's defence also says ALPC failed to properly finance or manage the lottery.

In a statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia last month, Maria Sancho — a former Bryony House client and president of ALPC Housing Solutions — said the agreement stipulates she is owed 15 per cent of what was collected.

"Bryony House has paid nothing to ALPC," she wrote.

Bryony House, meanwhile, said it was not responsible for paying management fees or any other money to ALPC due to the company's "breach of its responsibilities" and "failure to perform its services."

"ALPC's actions and omissions with respect to the marketing, financing and management of the lottery were unprofessional and below the reasonable standard," the statement of defence concludes.

ALPC's performance was "so deficient and incompetent" that it "negated" the benefit of the lottery, the shelter said.

Marketing company suing ALPC

This is not the only legal action related to the home lottery.

A Hammonds Plains marketing company is suing ALPC, saying it is owed $42,090 plus interest for work it did as marketing project manager between Oct. 23, 2013 and March 17, 2014.

Hyphen Marketing Solutions said it had a verbal agreement that was put in writing, and it hasn't been paid for the work.

In a statement of defence, Sancho says ALPC never made any agreement with Hyphen and suggests that at a certain point, Bryony House took over management of the lottery.

The Dare to Dream Home Lottery was plagued by questions and confusion. The hope had been to sell 60,000 tickets, but fewer than 24,000 were sold.

​ALPC Housing Solutions was run by Kris Martin and her friend, Sancho, although Martin is no longer listed as a director of the company.

Martin sold her Waverley home to Bryony House for $1,075,000, to be used as the grand prize in the home lottery. She then bought the house back from the winners for $620,000, a difference of $455,000.