Landlady Micheline Boisvert filed a provincial court lawsuit against a home renovator in 2003 for allegedly botching the creation of bathrooms in one of her nine Calgary houses.

She thought her case was a slam-dunk. But she lost at trial.

And that’s when her troubles really began.

In his September 2003 judgment, the Alberta judge awarded the contractor $500 in legal costs. Boisvert says she normally would have paid right away, but instead she acted on legal advice that she do nothing, for the time being. “We should assume that they have no intention to take enforcement steps,” her lawyer wrote her.

Wrong move. Boisvert’s failure to pay set off a chain of events in the civil-enforcement process that has left a bemused Sheriff of Alberta scratching his head.

Boisvert first learned December 10 that the modest judgment debt had run amok when she received a Notice of Intention to Sell Land from a Calgary civil-enforcement agency acting for the contractor.

The message was simple: Pay up, or we’ll collect by selling the house described on this document.

Boisvert got on the phone to Mr. Legal Eagle, QC. On December 16, the Calgary lawyer faxed her the one-page small claims court Certificate of Judgment. The businesswoman paid the contractor the $500 that same day.

End of matter? Guess again.

Unbeknownst to Boisvert, the contractor’s paralegal had engaged in procedural manoeuvres through a Calgary company that, for all the official status it has in Alberta’s privatized civil-enforcement system, may as well have been named Lou’s Chicken ’n’ Corn Dogs.

Boisvert found this out December 18 when “Lou’s” faxed her an invoice for $2,950 for the $500 debt, plus numerous and sundry “matters,” not the least of which was obtaining a Writ of Execution and filing it at the Land Titles Office against the titles to each of her nine properties.

“Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call,” the invoice cooed.

An outraged Boisvert had questions aplenty, like, what possessed the company to incur costs of more than $2,000 to satisfy a $500 debt? But by this time, she was wary of lawyers. So she went to Calgary paralegal Eric Gruenke of U-Sue for help.

Gruenke asked questions on Boisvert’s behalf, but Keith MacLean of Blue Moon Civil Pursuits Ltd. – the contractor’s court agent – declined to answer them because he felt the courthouse was the appropriate venue in which to address such issues.

So Gruenke did some poking around. He found Alberta’s Corporate Registry shows the sole director of “Lou’s” to be a Calgary bailiff (though the company is actually owned by someone else). At the same time, the director is part-owner of the civil-enforcement agency that issued Boisvert the Notice of Intention to Sell Land.

What is unusual is the fact that “Lou’s” billed Boisvert directly. Participants in the civil-enforcement process customarily bill the judgment creditor. But the bailiff told Business Edge he sent the information directly to the woman because she demanded it right away.

The bailiff said the $2,950 represented what he guaranteed the costs would be no higher than. “The actual amount would be substantially lower,” he added.

The key issue for Boisvert is when civil enforcement becomes overkill. If it is OK for a company to go to the expense of registering a writ against nine separate houses for a $500 court order, why not 100 houses owned by that same person (assuming he or she had that many)?

MacLean, of Blue Moon Civil Pursuits, said he handed the bailiff the file after the businesswoman and her lawyer ignored numerous calls from his company about her intentions regarding payment of the judgment debt or filing a court appeal.

“Someone goofed,” MacLean said. “Someone didn’t respond to us when we allowed the courtesy of time . . . to pay, or at least respond to us. At least two months went by before we looked at doing anything.”

MacLean said the bailiff acted on his best judgment when he learned at the Land Titles Office that Boisvert owns nine properties and registered the writ against all of them. And, in a letter to Business Edge, the bailiff added that “by registering against all properties, the judgment creditor is provided maximum protection against any of these properties being transferred or sold.”

B.C. has a privatized court bailiff service similar to that in Alberta, but Peter Robinson, manager of policy and programs, for the British Columbia Sheriff’s Service, said he hasn’t seen anything like the Alberta case before.

“They (bailiffs) are called on the carpet if they rack up costs in excess of what is proper,” Robinson said. “I’m a bit confused about why the enforcement officer there wouldn’t register against just one property. One property probably has enough equity to pay the judgment.”

The contractor’s civil enforcement is having a significant effect on Boisvert’s bed and breakfast and rental businesses. In February, the Royal Bank of Canada wrote her that it cannot increase her line of credit until the Writ of Execution is removed.

Dwayne Weatherall, sheriff of Alberta (civil enforcement), said Boisvert has the option of going to the courthouse and having the costs “taxed” for reasonableness. “I find it really odd that a business is invoicing a person that didn’t even hire them for their services,” he said.

Taxation of costs has had a place in British law ever since brigands wore pantaloons – and is a process that Boisvert may use.

The concept is simple: If your lawyer charges you $150,000 to mail your deadbeat ex-spouse a demand letter, you can haul him or her to the courthouse to explain the billing to a legally trained “taxing officer” or (in smaller centres) a clerk of the court who has the power to reduce it. The procedure is available both in B.C. and Alberta.

(Brock Ketcham is the director of trade practices for the Better Business Bureau of Southern Alberta. He can be reached at brock@businessedge.ca)