A man being sued for actions he took while defending his property south of Okotoks didn’t quite get the early Christmas present he and his family were hoping for — but they are cautiously optimistic a lawsuit against him will be dropped in January.
Edouard Maurice challenged to have a lawsuit against him filed by Ryan Randy Watson thrown out of court on Dec. 18 due to Bill 27 being passed earlier this month.
“We applied for a summary dismissal of our lawsuit because we are hopeful that bill is enough to get our lawsuit dismissed,” said Edouard’s wife, Jessica Maurice on Dec. 19. “We applied on Monday, Dec. 16, and our lawyer (Scott Chimuk) was in court yesterday (Dec. 18) to see a master on the judgment.
“It was adjourned until Jan. 27 – we should hopefully know by the end of January where this is going.”
Bill 27, the Trespass Statutes (Protecting Law-abiding Property Owners) bill was passed in the Alberta Legislature on Dec. 5. One of the stipulations of the bill is victims of crimes, who take reasonable, legal actions to protect their property, cannot be sued by those committing the crime.
Ryan Randy Watson and a co-accused drove onto the Maurice residence south of Okotoks at around 5:40 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2018. They rummaged through the Maurices’ vehicles.
Edouard, who was home with his one-year-old daughter, fired a warning shot into the ground, which ricocheted and struck Watson in the wrist.
Maurice was later charged with gun offences and all charges were dropped on June 22, 2018 at Okotoks provincial court.
Watson later pled guilty to mischief and failure to comply with a court order at Okotoks Provincial Court on Feb. 28, 2019. He was sentenced to 45 days in custody, but was released after receiving credit for time served.
Maurice was served in September with papers informing him he was being sued for $100,000 by Watson for personal damages.
Bill 27 was made retroactive to Jan. 1, 2018 — prior to the Maurice incident.
As Maurice had signed an affidavit, Watson’s lawyer, Stephen Nelson is given the right to question the affidavit prior to the Jan. 27 court date.
“We will be questioning him on his affidavit and we will be filing an affidavit and my client will be questioned as well,” Nelson said.
He said they also plan to launch a constitutional challenge against Bill 27.
“Bill 27, which makes my client’s lawsuit disappear — that was the intention of the lawsuit to do that — we are still researching, but we think it is unconstitutional,” Nelson said.
Chimuk is cautiously optimistic the lawsuit against Maurice will be killed in January.
“There are no guarantees in my business,” Chimuk said. “But the legislation is crystal clear.”
Maurice filed a counter-claim against Watson for $150,000 in the fall.
Chimuk said the two suits are independent of each other.
The Maurices are disappointed the decision has been delayed for a month.
“Obviously we were hoping that this would kind of all be done for Christmas,” Jessica said. “It’s disappointing it’s been delayed a month, but we feel pretty happy that we have a strong case and we hope the court will see that when we reconvene in January.”
