A man who loaned out $50,000 to help operate an underground Mahjong gambling house deserves to be repaid, despite the illegal nature of the business arrangement, the B.C. Supreme Court has ruled.
In a decision posted online Monday, Justice Gregory Bowden found that Philip Bor Yin Tsoi was aware the money he lent to Thomas Pok Fai Lai in July 2007 would in turn be borrowed out to gamblers at Lai’s illicit Mahjong operation.
But despite the two parties’ shared culpability, Bowden ruled that releasing Lai from the loan agreement would still amount to unjust enrichment.
“In the end result, I find that in the circumstances of this case my concern about an unjustified windfall or unjust enrichment overrides my concern about the nature of the illegality,” Bowden wrote in his decision, rebuffing Lai’s argument that the court should not take sides in an unlawful business deal.
Tsoi and Lai had also agreed to an interest rate of 60 per cent annually, the maximum allowable by law, which netted Tsoi $40,000 in payments during the first 16 months of the loan.
Bowden ruled Tsoi could keep that money, but released Lai from making any further interest payments moving forward.
The judge ordered him only to repay the amount of the outstanding principal, $46,000.
