A presumed gift of snowboarding gear pitted two friends against each other in a BC tribunal, with one of the friends suggesting it wasn’t a gift at all.
Kevin Snyder sued Tito Quiachon, asking the tribunal to force him to return the snowboarding gear or pay $1,000.
In response, Quiachon suggested that the snowboarding gear was a gift and that Snyder was only taking legal action because Quiachon refused to give him rides up to the ski mountain.
- You might also like:
- "Slammed doors": BC woman sues strata after being tormented by relentless fighting
- Landlord keeps vacation rental deposit over beet juice stains
- BC resident sues strata after her parking stall was rendered obsolete
According to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision, it isn’t clear whether the two participants in the case are still friends.
“The applicant and respondent are or were friends,” the tribunal decision ominously reads.
Quiachon wanted to go snowboarding but didn’t have the necessary gear. Snyder wanted to snowboard but didn’t have the necessary transportation. So, in November 2022, both of them went shopping together.
This is where the crux of the issue came into play.
Quiachon says Snyder made purchases as gifts for him, but it was his job to prove it, and the tribunal didn’t think he did.
Quiachon says during the shopping trip, Synder loudly said, “I got you,” so everyone knew that he had money and was paying for the equipment. Quiachon believes Snyder was “flexing” or showing off “like rappers do.”
Snyder didn’t deny the so-called “flexing.”
“I find that saying ‘I got you’ is ambiguous as it could indicate an intention to give or loan money for a purchase,” the tribunal said.
Text messages from days before suggest that Snyder agreed to contribute towards the gear, but only to the amount of $300, in exchange for the transportation Quiachon had offered.
“The applicant says the respondent asked the applicant to cover the purchases as he was waiting for a paycheque and had some significant expenses but did not want to miss the snowboarding season,” the decision reads.
The $300 offer was only made to Quiachon under the condition that the two would go up the mountain every weekend, but they only went up four times, so the tribunal reduced the $300 to $60.
Ultimately, the tribunal sided with Snyder, awarding him $1,090.69, including $936.77 in debt and the rest in tribunal fees.