A bailiff seized more than $800,000 in assets from the Just For Laughs Group last week after the comedy company failed to make a court-ordered payment to a former employee.
The seizure took place a week before Just for Laughs announced Tuesday that it was canceling the 2024 edition of its festival in Montreal and that it was taking shelter from its creditors.
The bailiff was sent after the Quebec Court of Appeal on February 8 ordered the company to compensate an archivist who was promised a job for life but was laid off in 2019.
Quebec’s highest court concluded that Just for Laughs must pay André Gloutnay more than $660,000, the equivalent of the salary he had lost since 2019 and his expected future earnings.
A notice of execution filed by a bailiff, however, indicates that the payment was never made.
Meanwhile, PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been appointed insolvency trustee as the firm seeks protection from creditors.
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