Former vending machine operator wins $1K in B.C. court battle with Vancouver School Board
The Vancouver School Board owes a former vending machine operator $1,000 in damages, after a B.C. judge ruled the company’s contract was wrongfully terminated.
A recent 20-page provincial court decision outlines a dispute over a contract between Po Hua Ma's company PoMa Vending and the VSB to provide vending machines at Vancouver Technical Secondary School.
The contract began in 2015 and was terminated by the school board two years later over Ma's alleged lack of compliance with the board’s vending machine healthy food guidelines.
In response, Ma filed a lawsuit seeking $35,000 in damages. He testified in court that he was only aware of one example where the school let him know he’d gone against guidelines by including an instant noodle pack in the vending machines.
The principal of the school at the time told the court Ma’s vending machines offered “do not sell” food products, expired food products and toys on multiple occasions.
According to the decision, November 2016 is the first time the school warned Ma about the breach of guidelines. That warning was followed by another in February. When the two parties met later than month, the ruling states Ma was reminded of the guidelines and the key role they played in his contract with the school.
The issue escalated in early July of that year when, Ma testified, he went to restock his vending machines at Van Tech and saw a retail shop was selling instant noodles to summer school students.
This shop, the VSB explains, is run by students enrolled in the small business program, meaning school administration isn’t involved.
On two occasions in July, Ma attempted to gather photographic evidence that products were being sold inside the school that did not fall under the VSB’s vending machine guidelines.
During the first, the school's vice principal alleged that Ma got into "a physical altercation" with him, something Ma denied. The vice principal was trying to intervene to enforce a student safety policy that prohibits photographs being taken inside schools without parental consent.
In his defense, Ma said no students were in any photographs he took.
Following his confrontation with the vice principal, Ma was sent a letter from the VSB advising him he was no longer permitted on site at Van Tech. If he showed up, Ma was warned, police would become involved.
Instead of terminating its contract with Ma, the VSB should have advised him about the safety protocols for students that prohibited photographs, according to judge Gregory M. Rideout's decision.
“I find that it is clear the defendant was looking for a way of terminating (Ma's) contract with the defendant in July 2017,” reads the decision.
While Rideout reasoned that the VSB may have been frustrated by Ma’s response to the summer school shop, the judge did not find his "disruptive conduct amounted to a repudiation of the contract.”
Ma was awarded less than three per cent of the damages he was seeking because the judge found he failed to disclose financial documentation proving he’d lost $35,000 as a result of the contract being terminated.
In addition, Rideout found Ma did not exercise “due diligence in relocating the operational vending machines at the earliest opportunity,” and said his testimony was “unreliable and inconsistent.”
The PoMa Vending machines at Van Tech were removed by the school at its own cost, and taken to a VSB warehouse. Ma relocated four of the machines to other high schools to mitigate losses before selling his business in 2019, according to the decision.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Eating disorders among youth skyrocketed during pandemic and so did associated costs, report finds
The number of young people experiencing eating disorders surged during the height of the pandemic as the social and economic costs skyrocketed too, a new pan-Canadian report has found.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.