A 77-year-old man who went to small claims court to get reimbursed for part of the $20,000 he loaned to a former escort in exchange for sexual services will not see the color of his money again, nor in cash or in kind.
What there is to know
Small Claims Court was seized in November of a case involving a series of loans totaling more than $20,000 between a man and a former escort whose services he used.
One of the clauses of the contract provided for “in-kind” reimbursements, at a rate of $200 per appointment.
The Small Claims Court has just rejected the man’s claim, but refused to rule specifically on the sexual favors provided for in the contract.
“This appeal takes place in a relational context laden with suffering and sadness,” underlines judge Sophie Lapierre, in her 17-page decision which rejects the man’s claim.
In November, the latter, a regular client of the sex worker for more than two years, went to court to recover $15,000 (the maximum in Small Claims Court) of the $20,000 he had lent to the woman to help her get out of her situation.
The escort, who worked at the time under the name “Leonie”, signed formal contracts agreeing to reimburse the man $487 per month. Faced with his inability to pay his dues, a “dream night clause” was eventually added to the contract, under which the man deducted $200 from the debt for each intimate encounter of a sexual nature with the woman.
“Léonie” pleaded before the court that this annex rendered the contract “absolutely null and void” because it involved advances on sexual services of a criminal nature and contrary to public order.
“His goal was to see her again,” said the judge
Judge Lapierre found it “useless” to determine whether the loans “granted in return for sexual favors” were “contrary to public order”, since the man had of his own accord “completely released” the escort from his debt. by signing a release for him a few months before the trial.
The man claimed to have signed the receipt under duress, for fear that the escort would commit suicide if he did not clear the debt. He said he had been the victim of “financial and psychological abuse” by a friend of the escort who told him about “Léonie’s” suicide threats.
The judge did not believe it, estimating based on numerous text exchanges that the man rather acted in this way out of fear of “losing the friendship” of the escort after she had expressed her desire to completely cut the connection with him.
Just before signing the release, he threatened to sue her by sending her a formal notice. “His goal was to see her again, to provoke her reaction to force her to meet him,” concluded the magistrate, rejecting the prosecution.
The ruling comes months after Nova Scotia’s Small Claims Court ordered a man to pay a sex worker $1,800 for sexual services he had not paid for. This decision is considered a first in the Canadian justice system.