A comedian whose cellphone was slapped out of his hand by an Abbotsford comedy club owner last summer has won a small-claims judgment.
Garrett Clark had sought $1,000 for his broken iPhone 6 but was awarded $400 by the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) on Thursday.
CRT documents indicate that Clark was slated to perform on Aug. 9 and 10, along with two other comedians.
The documents do not name the comedy club, but an online search shows that Clark performed at Yuk Yuk’s in Abbotsford on those dates.
Normally, each comedian has a complimentary room at the hotel connected to the club, but when Clark arrived on Aug. 9, there were only two rooms available, the documents state.
Clark called his agent to ask about a third room, but his agent was unable to reach anyone.
The documents state that Clark then asked club owner Sarbjit Dosanjh if there was somewhere he could change before the show.
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“He says the dialogue became frustrated. Using his iPhone, the applicant took a photo of the respondent so he could show his agent who was causing him ‘grief’ … He says the respondent said not to take photos of him,” they state.
Clark said Dosanjh then slapped Clark’s hands, causing the cellphone to go flying onto the stairs.
The phone could then no longer be unlocked, and the screen was obscured, according to the documents.
Clark used a friend’s cellphone to call police, but officers said they could not do anything because it was a civil matter and nobody was injured.
One of the other comedians who was scheduled to perform that night testified that they saw the entire exchange.
But Dosanjh denied slapping Clark’s phone, and said that Clark should not be believed because “he failed to bring his broken phone to management’s attention and the applicant performed the scheduled two nights in the club.”
Clark said he needed to perform both shows in order to be paid for the weekend.
Tribunal member Micah Carmody said he believed Clark over Dosanjh.
“I find it unlikely that the applicant would contact the police if his iPhone was not broken,” Carmody wrote in his decision.
Carmody said, because of the age of the phone and its unknown prior condition, he valued it at less than the $1,100 sought by Clark.
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