'Mr. Cool' scams 'Ms. Curl' in ice cream truck deal gone wrong
It was meant to be a simple transaction: a quick drive from Grande Prairie, Alberta to Surrey, B.C. in a deal that would double the buyer's ice cream truck fleet and launch the business into the Fort McMurray summer season.
But it quickly went into meltdown.
On Monday, B.C. Supreme CourtJustice Madam Wendy Baker awarded Gail Curl more than $17,000 in damages for breach of contract.
Ana Lepine, the owner of the Surrey-based company, Mr. Cool Ice Cream, and her ex-husband Peter Lepine were ordered to pay $5,500 for an undelivered ice cream truck, $1,500 in hotel fees, $5,000 in lost profits and about $5,000 in Curl's expenses.
According to Justice Baker, It all began when Curl saw one of Lepine's 30 ice-cream trucks for sale online. Curl agreed to pay $1,500 up front for a 1991 Chevrolet van with three white freezers, a spare tire, a music box, speaker and stop sign.
She planned to hand over the other $4,000 after picking up the van.
The trip
In her judgment, Baker outlined how on March 30, 2013, Curl and her husband with $4,000 in cash made the drive from Grande Prairie to the Lower Mainland to pick up their new ice cream truck.
But it turned out Peter Lepine was fixing the truck. He told the pair he needed another 13 days before it would be roadworthy.
On April 13, Baker said Curl went to a nearby fast-food restaurant to wait for the final repairs. Several hours later, Peter Lepine finally arrived and gave Curl the vehicle's transfer documents.
Eager to get to the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) before it closed, Curl failed to notice the registration papers didn't match the serial number on the ice-cream truck.
Over the next few days, Curl demanded Mr. Cool hand over the right ice-cream truck — the one they had agreed upon, but Peter Lepine refused.
A history of stolen ice cream
In her reasons for judgment, Baker says Lepine claimed he was motivated by a previous incident involving the Alberta couple and Mr. Cool Ice Cream.
Lepine maintains in 2009 Curl and her husband stole a truck from Mr. Cool laden with thousands of dollars worth of ice cream.
"I then decided to sell them the ice-cream truck, not the one of many I showed them, but the actual one they stole from me in 2009."
He says the couple told him they planned to sell ice cream on Vancouver Island, but they disappeared with the truck.
The RCMP later found it broken down and abandoned on the side of the highway outside of Grande Prairie — the freezers and ice cream stripped from the vehicle.
When the couple returned to buy the another truck in 2013, Peter Lepine thought he recognized them.
"After the meeting, I went home and looked back on my files," said Lepine. "To my shock it was them."
That's when Lepine decided to resell Curl the old ice-cream truck they took and abandoned back in 2009.
"Mr. Cool and Mr. Lepine may have a valid counterclaim to advance," said Justice Baker, who decided not to weigh in on which version of the previous events were true.
But there was no doubt, according to Justice Baker, that the Lepines' and Mr. Cool never planned to live up to the original sales agreement.
