Court orders Vancouver developer Ian Gillespie’s firm to pay $200,000 in unpaid bills to contractor

By ThinkPol Staff

A BC Supreme Court judge has ordered Vancouver developer Ian Gillespie’s firm to pay more than $200,000 in unpaid bills to the contractor who painted the Telus Garden building.

Atlas Painting & Restorations Ltd had sued 501 Robson Residential Partnership over a claim for monies owed under a contract to provide painting services on the 47-storey residential and commercial tower in downtown Vancouver^[1]http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/sc/18/06/2018BCSC0600.htm.

The partners of 501 Robson Residential Partnership^[2]https://thinkpol.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/501Robson.pdf are Richards GP Holdings Inc, whose sole director is Ian Gillespie^[3]https://thinkpol.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/RichardsGP.pdf, and 0922454 B.C. LTD^[4]https://thinkpol.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/0922454.pdf, whose directors are Telus executives Doug French and Monique Mercier, BC corporate registry records show.

Gillespie’s Westbank Projects Corp acted as agent for 501 Robson Residential Partnership, wile ICON Pacific Construction Corp. was the construction manager on the Project.

Atlas billed a total of nine progress claims from April through December 2015, out of which the developer and construction manager signed and approved eight.

After settling six of the eight claims, the developer issued a series of notices of default to Atlas, claiming that it had been forced to hire another painter to satisfactorily complete Atlas’s work, and then finally terminated the contract in December 2015.

After the contract was terminated, Atlas filed a lien against title for unpaid bills, and launched the lawsuit.

The Honourable Madam Justice S. Griffin found that complaints about Atlas’s quality of work “were nothing beyond the ordinary deficiencies that can be expected on a construction project and which Atlas showed a willingness to correct, and did not amount to breach of contract on Atlas’s part” and that Atlas was not behind any schedule stipulated in the contract.

The judge concluded that Atlas had done all the work for which at had billed the developer, as well as work down outside of the contract, and ordered Gillespie’s firm to pay the moneys owed.