‘Clearly untrue’: BC judge orders property developer to pay up after bilking contractor

A BC property developer, who refused to pay a contractor $32,000 and then dragged the matter through the courts after being sued, has been ordered to pay up after the judge called his behaviour “difficult and unwarranted” and some of his testimony “clearly untrue.”

According to a Nov. 10 BC Supreme Court decision, Lucas Siemens hired MacLean Bros Drywall to work on his high-end Nicola Lake vacation home in 2021.

Once the drywall was done, Siemens messaged the company saying “good job,” but then refused to pay.

Months after the bill wasn’t paid, the drywall company took Siemens to court.

“The litigation path has been anything but straightforward or smooth,” Justice Sheri Donegan said in the decision. “Delays have resulted from various contested applications and procedural steps.”

Two years after the work was done, the company won a default judgment and then garnished $34,000 from Siemens, which was later overturned. Siemens made numerous applications and filed a counterclaim almost three years after he’d been taken to court.

The matter then went to a seven-day trial in Kamloops.

Siemens argued the drywalling was up to standard, and the contractor had missed parts and taken materials away that they were supposed to leave.

Justice Donegan pointed out this was contrary to a “good job” text he’d sent after the work was done, which was followed by him saying, “what I wanted and was quoted.”

The Justice said that Siemens’ complaints about the work changed considerably over time.

“They remained imprecise and difficult to follow at trial. I can find no better way to describe the challenge in trying to identify and assess Mr. Siemens’ complaints other than to say it has been akin to the effort I would imagine is required to pin Jello to a wall—lacking substance, ever shifting, and impossible to pin down,” the Justice said.

Justice Donegan said Siemens held a “cavalier attitude” to the matter and he was not a balanced witness.

“(His) answers were rambling, evasive, non-responsive, and/or sarcastic. Some of his evidence was internally inconsistent,” the decision reads.

The Justice said it was difficult to get a straight answer out of Siemens.

“Mr. Siemens was also a witness who attempted to unreasonably control the narrative he was trying to advance,” the Justice said. “This caused him to provide testimony that was, at times, non-responsive or deliberately vague, and, at other times, clearly untrue.”

“I can have no confidence in Mr. Siemens’ credibility or the reliability of his evidence,” the decision said.

In contrast, Justice Donegan said MacLean Bros Drywall was an honest and trustworthy witness.

In arguing that they are owed money the drywallers point to Siemens’ lengthy litigation history.

Court records show Siemens, who is from Abbotsford and owns Vanmar Poultry, has been involved in dozens of legal cases over the last 20 years.

In 2007, Siemens Contracting was sued over a $125,000 promissory note, which he’d missed monthly payments on.

In 2014, an engineering firm sued Siemens over an $3,600 unpaid bill. He argued he didn’t authorize the work to be done and it wasn’t done. The judge didn’t buy it and ordered him to pay $5,585 with interest and fees.

A decade ago, Siemens got into a lengthy legal battle with a neighbour who was a realtor which ended up in the BC Court of Appeal, although Siemens wasn’t successful.

Siemens is also being sued by a masonry company for $31,500 for work it says it was never paid for. Siemens responded to the suit saying this wasn’t his project and he’d never hired him.

The drywallers ask the justice to consider Siemens’ other cases in assessing the credibility and the reliability of his evidence, although the justice rejects this.

“Previous judicial determinations about a witness’s credibility or reliability in unrelated trials cannot be used to assess his or her credibility or reliability in a present trial,” the Justice said.

Ultimately, the Justice said she “easily” concludes that the work was up to par and Siemens owes the money, ruling he must pay $31,762 plus fees and interest.