A BC cocktail lounge was forced to pay up after a drag performer sued them for unpaid services.
Tyson Cook, the drag performer in question, sued Friends of Dorothy Cocktail Lounge (FoD) in Kelowna, BC, claiming $1,100 in unpaid services.
Cook was making $150 per night hosting karaoke nights at FoD. Sometime in the summer of 2022, FoD agreed to pay an additional $100 per night for hosting Canada’s Drag Race viewing parties.
According to Cook, FoD failed to pay the additional $100 fee for all but one of those parties, and FoD failed to pay for regular karaoke night hosting fees twice.
FoD says it never agreed to pay for the additional fees and that all services were paid for.
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According to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision, Cook says that a verbal agreement was made for the $100 additional fee for the viewing parties. Cook submitted a text exchange that asked if they would be paid more for the viewing parties. The text response from FoD’s manager, KL, said, “Of course, I’d pay you extra.”
Cook claimed he was paid $100 in cash on August 11 for a party they hosted on July 14. FoD denied agreeing to pay extra and denied paying him the $100.
Another text exchange submitted by Cook showed that KL told them that FoD’s managing partner “didn’t approve the drag race viewing budget.”
KL also texted, “I don’t know why this is being sorted out now. It’s definitely a communication issue on our end and I apologize for that.”
Cook replied in a later text, “You can’t just change the agreement a month after it happened.”
KL added that the managing partner “never agreed to it. He is the one paying. I’m at a loss. It’s also out of my hands.”
One additional text from KL suggested that the managing partner would not pay the additional viewing party fee because Cook did not work extra time on the nights they hosted the parties and that FoD didn’t receive sufficient sales or revenue to justify the $100 fee.
The text exchanges proved evidence enough for the tribunal to rule in Cook’s favour, and he was awarded $1,263 for the unpaid services and tribunal fees.
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