A crafter who said she was unfairly expelled from a local craft group – and its annual Christmas fair – has lost her court case.
Carol Marion Tennis filed a claim with the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal seeking $4,500 – the amount she said she would have earned if she hadn’t been prevented from participating in a November 2022 event.
Tennis claimed in court that Nancy V. Bennett, Gillian Kadiri and Christene Rafuse “improperly expelled” her from the All Sooke Arts & Crafts Association (ASAAC) and the three-day Christmas craft fair.
“The applicant says, as a result, she lost $4,500 in sales that she would have allegedly earned at the Christmas fair,” reads the CRT decision. “So, the applicant claims this amount from the respondents, as well as an order that the respondents reinstate her ASAAC membership.”
The three people named in the CRT claim defended their actions, adding that the claim of lost sales was “exaggerated.”
“The respondents say the decision to expel the applicant was justified and they were entitled to remove the applicant from the Christmas fair due to her failure to follow the fair’s show rules,” reads the CRT decision. “They further say the applicant’s claim of alleged $4,500 in lost sales is exaggerated. They say the applicant has suffered no damages as her products can be sold at other craft fairs.”
Bennett also responded that the ASAAC, and not its executive committee, should be the proper respondent, but the CRT ruling said that it was an unincorporated association and couldn’t be sued.
According to the CRT ruling, Tennis applied to be in the Christmas fair, but was told the application was incomplete. Tennis and the respondents also disagreed on how she would display her items.
“(The respondents) also say the applicant refused to cooperate with their requests about how to display her products during the show, in breach of the show rules,” said the ruling. “In particular, the respondents refer to a Sept. 4, 2022 discussion between the applicant, Gillian Kadiri and Nancy Bennett about the applicant’s proposed table display for the Christmas fair. The respondents say, and the applicant does not dispute, that the applicant was insistent on doing the table display her own way, despite Nancy Bennett and Gillian Kadiri’s instructions that the applicant’s display posed safety issues and would not be allowed at the Christmas fair.”
The CRT found several reasons to reject the claims made by Tennis, including a lack of proof to back up the $4,500 amount.
“First, other than her general assertion that she made an extraordinary amount of canned goods in preparation for the Christmas fair, the applicant provided no explanation or calculation of her claimed $4,500 in lost sales,” said the ruling. “Further, I note that while the applicant had paid to reserve her tables for the Christmas fair, she undisputedly did not have the required FoodSafe certificate. While emails in evidence show that the applicant had informed Nancy Bennett that she had registered for the course, it is unclear when she intended to take the course and there is no guarantee that she would have passed it. So, I find there was no guarantee that the applicant would have been able to participate in the Christmas fair since she had not yet obtained the necessary FoodSafe certificate.”
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