North Okanagan senior left with fees, court order after refusing $20K left to him in a will

A North Okanagan rancher, who was left $20,000 in a will but refused to accept it, has had most of his windfall eaten up in legal costs after a BC judge declared him a “vexatious litigant” due to his behaviour in court.

According to a Nov. 21 BC Supreme Court decision, Eric Bernard Emmanuel Massot was left $20,000 in a will after a friend of his died in 2021.

However, for reasons unexplained, Massot refused to accept the money and then dragged the process through the courts, launching several cases against a couple who had inherited his late friend’s land.

The couple, Mark and Elizabeth Shewchuk, asked the court to declare Massot a “vexatious litigant” and BC Supreme Court Justice Bradford Smith agreed.

“He has habitually, persistently and without reasonable grounds, instituted vexatious legal proceedings in the Supreme Court, first against the Shewchuks, then against their counsel too,” Justice Bradford says in the decision. “For reasons known only to (Massot), he refused to accept the ($20,000) Bequest and instead dragged the Shewchuks and their lawyer through years of expensive and frivolous litigation.”

The case dates back to 2021, when Cherryville resident William Welsh died and left $20,000 to Massot and a parcel of land in Cherryville to the Shewchuks.

The Shewchuks tried to give the $20,000 to Massot but he refused it six times, either refusing to sign the form or writing “void” on the cheque and sending it back.

Massot, who is in his late 60s, also continued to graze his cattle on the land that was left to the Shewchuks by Welsh in his will.

A 2023 court ruling says he refused to remove the livestock and farm equipment from the land and only did so after the police became involved.

Weeks after removing the animals, Massot then sued the couple, saying he’d been grazing his cattle on the land for 20 years and had a verbal agreement to do so in the future. He lost the case.

Over the course of the legal proceedings, the Shewchuks got a restraining order against Massot barring him from coming within 50 feet of them, their property, the law firm representing them and its employees.

In late 2023, Massot launched another case against the Shewchuks but then withdrew it shortly after the couple responded. On the same day he withdrew the case, he launched another one against them.

Some of his court filings are difficult to understand, and throughout he represented himself in court.

Massot has represented himself in court before and in 1995 won a retrial at the BC Court of Appeal after he was found guilty of stealing 50 bales of hay from an employer he accused of not paying him. It’s unclear what the final verdict was and whether the issue was dropped or went to a retrial.

In his current court case, Massot accuses the Shewchuks and their lawyer of collusion.

Justice Bradford calls the allegations “unjust” and calls Massot’s conduct “reprehensible” and “corrosive” and awards the couple special costs to condemn his conduct in court.

Ultimately, the Justice ruled Massot pay $14,601 in costs to the couple and barred him from taking any more legal action against the couple, their lawyer or anyone involved in the estate.

“The courts of this country exist to provide justice to all litigants. They do not exist as a tool for those who would abuse the power of the court process to pursue vexatious litigation against others. Unfortunately, that is what has occurred in this case,” Justice Bradford says in the decision.