Restoration company wants son of deceased Coquitlam man held liable for estate’s unpaid legal debts

A company is trying to make the son of a deceased Coquitlam man personally liable for money awarded in a 2023 civil suit against his estate.

Epic Restoration Services sought a relief order in B.C. Supreme Court that would make Rudyard Kippling Fuller responsible for outstanding amounts owed from the legal victory, arguing estate property had been transferred into his own name to prevent payment.

On June 28, 2024 Justice Palbinder Kaur Shergill dismissed the application due to procedural issues. However, he added he found the plaintiff’s “substantive arguments compelling,” and affirmed their right to commence separate legal actions that would hold Fuller personally liable.

“I anticipate the likelihood of Rudyard succeeding in such a subsequent proceeding, as being very low,” Shergill said.

In February 2023, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered the estate of Fuller’s father to pay $37,700, plus interest, to Epic Restoration over unpaid invoices relating to flood damage in 2017.

While the principal sum was paid in full following the judgement, seven years of interest amounting to more than $41,000 has not.

Epic Restoration argued that Fuller, as the executor and personal representative of his late father’s estate, had a fiduciary responsibility to settle outstanding legal claims.

Legal action was first commenced in 2018, but following his father’s death in 2019, Fuller transferred his father’s interest in the Sprice Avenue property (valued at approximately $767,500) into his own name, according to court records.

The property was a substantial asset in the estate, and would have covered the costs of the judgement. Epic Restoration says the estate has now been drained and can’t settle its legal debts.

The original suit did not name Fuller as a defendant or party, and his personal liability was first raised in May, 2023, when Epic Restoration filed an application seeking relief.

Epic Restoration argued that it was not aware the property had been transferred outside of the estate until the trial order had been issued in February, and it lacked the factual foundation to hold Fuller liable under the Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA).

Fuller argued, on the other hand, that because he was not officially named as a party in the original litigation, the suit lacked the legal standing to pursue personal liability against him.

He said the company was obliged to bring the matter before the previous judge when seeking costs, rather than pursuing legal action under a different judge.

Furthermore, Fuller argued the estate has already been administered, the previous ruling is a “simple contract debt” that did not exist when the estate’s assets were being divided, nor were those assets under a freezing order.

Epic, meanwhile, took the position that it was not necessary to add Fuller as a separate party because an estate is not a separate legal entity from its administrator.

Shergill noted the company could have applied to have Fuller added as a party and noted the it had been aware of the issue for almost a year but still chose not to file an application.

He said having the court add Fuller as a party would not be appropriate, as it would prevent him from advancing a defence on the issue.

“I conclude that to obtain an order against Rudyard personally under WESA, the plaintiff needed to have taken steps to bring Rudyard into the litigation in his personal capacity,” Shergill said. “This is because the allegation that Rudyard breached his fiduciary duty and is liable to Epic for the trial order . . . raises a new cause of action that must be specifically plead.”

Travelers Canada, the insurance provider involved in the original suit, submitted an identical relief order against Fuller alongside Epic Restoration, but it was dismissed for the same reasons.

Shergill suggested the companies seek their personal liability claims against Fuller either through adding him as a party under the existing action and amending the claim, or by commencing a separate legal action.

Fuller was awarded legal costs from the plaintiffs.